GIRARD — Consistent with a nationwide trend, local fire departments are stressing the need for more staffing as some departments in Trumbull County stretch their personnel to help others.

Over the last two weeks, the Liberty Township Fire Department and its union, IAFF 2075, have received support from residents through social media because of difficulties remaining open with a four-person rotation.

“No one has come to the table yet to talk,” Ronnie Simone, IAFF 2075 president, said Thursday. “We’ve been posting our daily staffing everyday, but it’s really been slow.”

Overall, Simone said, all of the full-time and part-time firefighters are on the same page in terms of pushing for more staffing.

“I think all of the firefighters in Trumbull County are on the same page,” Simone said.

“If you go directly north or south of us, you’ll see people starting out at what we’re making at the top now, and those are the guys leaving our department. And these places are within 45 minutes to one hour away.”

As far as full-time staffing, Simone said other departments in the area are in good shape. “For some reason, we can never get it right,” he said.

“They feel that we’re pushing scare tactics on the public, but that is not the case at all. We are very concerned about the safety of our residents. A fire doubles and triples in size after so long, and every second counts in a cardiac arrest.”

Liberty trustees met in executive session March 11 regarding the concern about stations being closed.

Simone explained that during that session, trustees decided no longer to staff a fifth firefighter on overtime.

The union then argued in a Facebook post that trustees’ claims that March 7 was the first time they heard that Station 34 was closed, were false. “That is not true,” the post stated. “The Fire Chief is notified each time the station is closed. The Fire Chief was not working the day of the closure. The station was previously closed: Feb. 2 for 12 hours, Dec. 29 for 24 hours, Dec. 23 for 12 hours, Dec. 20 for 4 hours, Feb. 9 for 14 hours, and Dec. 2 for 24 hours, just to go back to December.” The union also stated that it did not publicize previous closures “in effort to remain friendly with the Liberty Township trustees in hopes to work toward increasing staffing.”

OTHER DEPARTMENTS

Girard fire Chief Jim Petruzzi said Friday, “We work very well with Liberty Fire Department, and in their time of need, we will certainly be there when they call us. But at the same time, their trustees can’t say that they’re going to rely on other communities to cover their shortfalls.”

When Girard personnel are sent to Liberty, “then it shorts my city,” Petruzzi said. “I have a department and residents that I have to prioritize. It’s happening more often than not, now that their staffing has been cut. In the times that we do go there, it definitely puts a hindrance on our department and whatever capabilities we have until that individual who is over there is able to come back and return to service.”

A full shift for Girard includes four firefighters. Liberty considers its full staff to be four employees per shift as well, when there is no part-time person available. However, Petruzzi, who puts himself on duty during the week when available, said, “With vacations schedules, mandatory days off, and things like that, we typically work with three per day.

Girard’s staff includes 13 full-time, including Petruzzi, three captains and nine firefighters / paramedics. “At the present time, we do not have any part-time or volunteer staffing.”

In Vienna, fire Chief Richard Brannon said due to a “county wide mutual aid agreement,” his department always is willing to assist Liberty, so long as the resources are made available.

“I know they’re (Liberty) running short, we’re running short, and Brookfield is running short, so it’s a give and take situation, while we try to help out as much as we can.”

At least one or two firefighters, Brannon said, is the amount that Vienna tries to keep available day-to-day. Before there were “cutbacks” as described by Brannon, two squads would operate for the township throughout shifts. Now the township is only running one squad.

Vienna has approximately 15 volunteers, three full-time medics, 10 part-time medics and 15 part-time EMTs, Brannon said.

“A lot of times, the paramedics and EMTs we run aren’t firefighters, so we have to rely on other departments for crashes, house fires and stuff like that,” Brannon added. “It’s actually a nationwide shortage. We try to staff as best we can, but sometimes, it doesn’t happen that way.”

Brookfield Capt. Steve Smoot said his department’s staff includes seven full-time employees, plus Chief David Masirovits. “We operate three shifts. So two shifts have two full-time employees, and one shift has three full-time employees, when we’re fully staffed. When we’re fully staffed, that is adequate for us to take care of the township.”

Full-time personnel in Brookfield are supplemented with two part-time per day. “Two part-time on the one shift, and then three part-time on the other, so full staffing for us is five people per day,” Smoot said.

PAY ISSUES

Petruzzi said, similar to Liberty’s “step program” for firefighter earnings, Girard uses a three-step scale. “It’s technically three steps, but essentially, you’re working four full years before you’re at a 100% rate,” Petruzzi said.

“What we’re running into in this area is we can not compete with the Cleveland area. When you have someone coming to work at any of the full-time departments around here, they’re topping out maybe just north of $50,000 per year. But they could travel to the Cleveland area, or suburbs outside of there, and top out at almost $90,000 per year. So it’s hard enough to get people to do this job in general, but when you throw in the differences in wages …. when someone can hop in their car and drive an hour to make $30,000 to $40,000 more per year, I think people are jumping on that opportunity for the money.”

Simone said while the township has given contracts to new firefighters, “It’s been staggered for over a year. Until we fix that, we can’t compete with departments north and south of us. They’re paying too much at starting pay. Until we can eliminate our step program for our wages, we’re going to continue being a revolving door fire department. There’s just no way to keep up.”

The township’s contract with IAFF Local 2075, effective through Dec. 31, 2025, starts firefighters with a pay rate of $18 per hour, and increases by $1 per year of service.

After seven years of service, a firefighter under the contract will be paid an annual salary of $62,048.06.

Brannon, Vienna’s 29-year fire chief, said in regard to a possible levy ever being needed to strengthen its safety forces, “We’ve never had a levy fail for our fire department.” He continued, “We help the community, and the community helps us. That’s why I retracted my retirement paper, because I can’t walk out with the way things are now. I can’t leave the community or my people hanging.”

PERCEPTION

Trumbull County Commissioner Denny Malloy spoke about the state of staffing, not only for fire departments, but public service careers in general.

“We have our own shortage of corrections officers and dispatchers,” Malloy said. “There is a shortage of nurses, firefighters, corrections officers, and 911 dispatchers. Somewhere along the lines, the schools, communities, and business leaders need to hold job fairs, or do something to reengage people.”

These careers that “people can have their whole lives, not only pay decently, but give a feeling of self-worth by serving your community.”

“It’s hard to find people to work at any job right now in the private sector, but once it starts affecting the public service jobs, and we’re talking about safety, there is an issue. That issue does need to be addressed. On the county level, we’re looking at the pay and working conditions to be more attractive. And maybe fire departments need to do some of the same, but things are tough all over with this.”

Malloy added that it is unfortunate that such jobs were once in high demand, but now people who “actually want to work” must be found to do them.

“It takes a special person for those careers, and I guess we just need a way to find those special people,” Malloy said. “A lot of the people who become our dispatchers start out as firefighters. And a lot of people who become corrections officers want to be cops. It’s all related because those are the same type of special people.”

Safety has been a top priority for Trumbull County, Malloy concluded. “We do wish success for all of them and I hope we can find full staffing for all of them,” he said. “We just bought four ambulances for the townships and we want to buy more. Safety equipment has been one of our top priorities. We definitely want to support our township fire departments, and our cities, to be fully staffed, have good pay, and good employees.”