Circleville – The Circleville Fire Department is reporting another record year for runs at the year’s end.
According to the department in 2023, they had a total of 4,605 runs this included 3,448 EMS runs, 1,157 fire runs, and 738 mutual aid runs, averaging around 12.62 runs per day. In 2022 the run total was 4,603.
In 2022 Circleville Fire Department has secured several grants to propel the local fire department into the future, some of those grants have come to fruition already, but some still are in the works. One of the grants that is currently benefiting Circleville is the Safer Grant, a 1,585,846.38 million dollar grant that currently funds six additional full-time personnel that are 100% federally funded for three years. The second Grant that will propel the Fire department into the future is a 975,000-dollar Federal grant that will replace the almost 30-year-old ladder truck that is currently active fleet for the department, the ladder truck according to Chief Thompson is at the end of its life. A small portion of matching costs the city (5%) has already budgeted for the purchase and the truck is currently being built.
Currently, the fire department is at full staff, and during a council meeting in June of 2023, Chief Thompson told the council that they currently have a wait list of eight candidates that have already been background checked by the human resource department in the queue. He said that lateral transfers have done well for the Department hiring six from the safer grant, four of them already experienced paramedics.
The chief said that because of that and holding onto more firefighters at the department they now have a good pool of experienced people in the department.
“Yeah, we used to be top-heavy with just basic EMTs now we are top-heavy with paramedics, we’ve got a good pool of experienced people, one of the individuals we hired through the lateral transfer had 14 years of experience from another department as a paramedic so we were doing very well,” said Thompson.
In 2023 the Fire department put in new floors to the 21-year-old building located on North Court Street, Thompson told the Council that the new floor will be a laminate plank So it wouldn’t hold germs it would be easier to clean, and that would help us out tremendously when it comes to decon on the station.
Chief reported that due to full staffing, the department has saved the city around 90,000 dollars worth of overtime hours from years past.
“Just as a something for you guys, I know, in the past, overtime has been a huge concern. We’re down 2,224 hours of overtime this year from last year. And that’s about the equivalent of a little bit less than $90,000 that we’ve saved, being a full staff having a minimum of maximum personnel.”
One challenge that will face the Fire department this year will be to attempt to help pass a Safety levy that failed in the 2023 election. The Levy helps pay for a major portion of the safety forces in the city.
