MENTOR, Ohio — It’s a job that already requires a lot of risk and sacrifice, and now firefighters in some departments across the country are being asked to work additional overtime because of staffing shortages.
The Mentor Fire Department said sometimes firefighters are asked to spend even more time away from home and family, to make sure there is always enough staff to respond in an emergency.
Dominic Vivolo has been a firefighter for about 30 years. He said he’s aware of how the job has changed over the years.
“You know there are ups and downs to everything, and I have had my share of it looking back on the past 30 years,” he said. “But all-in-all, it is a very rewarding career.”
The Mentor Fire Department is one of many across the nation that’s been hit by staffing shortages. The city hired six new full-time firefighters within the last year to help ease the problem, but still, the department does sometimes have to impose mandatory overtime.
“Something that we have never had to deal with before is forced mandatory overtime,” Vivolo said. “It’s made its rounds all the way up to me, and I’m kind of high up there, so if that tells you, I mean all the younger guys get hit with it, and we do it seniority based.”
Vivolo said while he knows what comes with the job, long hours can affect his family.
“You’re going to have days where you miss birthdays. You know I have missed my son’s birthday, occasionally, or if he has a special event at school or something like that,” he said. “I’ve got a great wife. She’s very understanding. She knows the job and what she was getting into before we got married.”
Besides hiring six new full-time firefighters, Battalion Chief Tom Keidel said the department also relies on part-time firefighters to fill shifts, but it’s been harder recently to find enough of them.
“For some reason over the last handful of years, we have seen a drop in the number of part-time firefighters which, the way we stack our department, would increase the need for overtime for full-time firefighters,” he said.
Keidel said he knows asking people who give so much to give more can take a toll.
“It does create a situation where it does increase the stress levels, because maybe you had plans that are now going to be canceled because you are being forced to be here on overtime. It’s something our culture has embraced because we want to be here for the community, but it also does increase stress levels amongst the ranks,” he said.
Vivolo said while he sometimes feels the stress of the job, he knows it’s all about the bigger picture.
“I’m doing this to help people, honestly,” he said. “This is why I got into it, just something that came natural for me even as a kid.”
