TOLEDO, Ohio — First-responder budgets have taken a hit during this recession, but federal grants are helping fill the financial gap for agencies that employ those on the front lines.
Sterling Rahe watches as a fire engine returns from a call.
“Our average is about 160 to 180 incidents a day in a 24-hour period. And that’s about 280 to 290 emergency vehicle responses. That’s our average,” said Rahe, the public information officer of the department.
While the department is managing the current volume, Rahe says right now, the department needs more firefighters.
“Currently, our staffing levels are lower than we would like them. We have about 520 firefighters—sworn firefighters actively on the job. We’d like that number to be somewhere around 565 (or) 570. That allows us to keep our minimum staffing, meet the mission, make the runs—do everything that we need to do.”
“SAFER” stands for “Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response.”
The department plans to have a new fire class beginning in April, and the grant allows for 10 more firefighters. With the budget hit by COVID-19 shutdowns, grants are helping to fill a void.
“Right now, COVID has decimated all municipalities in regards to our tax base (and) so forth, so we anticipate this helping us,” said Rahe. “In the fire service, it’s little bit different. You just can’t, you know, hang a shingle out and say we’re hiring, and have somebody work in the next week. We go through a process that starts with a test, physical, agility, background checks, interviews. There’s a pretty significant vetting process that goes through.”
In addition to fires and medical calls, the Toledo Fire and Rescue also has to deal with water rescues.
“It’s not hard to fill the spots. It’s just … it’s very labor intensive to find the right people for this job,” said Rahe. “Confined space, hazmat, our dive team—there’s a whole host of jobs that go with this. When you say firefighter, people (think) that’s all we do is put out fires. And that’s actually a very small portion of what we do in regards to how we impact the community and serve the community.”
Additional help for those helping their community on the front lines every day.
