Fire chief warns of station needs

TIFFIN — Neither of Tiffin's fire stations meets the division's operational needs, and a new station could cost about $12 million, Fire Chief Rob Chappell told City Council on Monday in the Tiffin Fire and Rescue Division's annual report. Chappell said discussions about a west-end fire station began in the 1960s, shortly after Station 2 was rebuilt. "Sixty years later, we're still talking about it," he said. "We have failed to accordingly plan for new and updated fire stations, even though they are critical pieces of our city's infrastructure." He said the EPA-mandated long-term control plan and other projects have pushed capital spending earlier than expected, while apparatus have grown larger and heavier and equipment requirements have increased. Modern stations need space for contamination control, turnout gear, secure medication storage, fitness and training areas and separate sleeping accommodations, none of which the current buildings were designed for, he said. "We need to develop a plan before the plan is made for us," Chappell said. Council approved construction of the current Station 2 in 1965, replacing a station built in 1906 from salvaged materials that housed four firefighters, two horses and a hose cart, Chappell said. The current building houses three or four firefighters, a 75-foot ladder truck, a reserve engine and an ambulance. Apparatus are parked tight to the bay doors at the front and back of Station 2, Chappell said, and personnel must sidestep between bumpers and doors to cross the building. "Football may be a game of inches, but it has nothing on us," he said. Chappell said he has begun discussions with the architectural firm McCall Sharp Genet on a 16-foot addition to the rear of Station 2 at an estimated cost of about $250,000. "That work does not build a new station or solve every long-term issue, but it does buy us some time," he said. The division has fallen behind on vehicle replacement, Chappell said. Engine 1 is 10 years old and would normally move to Station 2 as a reserve, but has a larger wheelbase and will not fit where the 21-year-old Engine 2 sits. Engine 2 should have been sold but required $55,000 in repairs last year, he said. Call volume up 25% Chappell said the division responded to 3,872 emergency incidents in 2025, up about 25.5% from 3,085 in 2018. "Our population has not increased by 25% during that period, but the demand for our services has," he said. He attributed the growth to an aging population, patients living longer with more complex conditions, growth in assisted living and health care facilities, two universities and significant daytime employment. A planned assisted living development on the city's north end is expected to house more than 200 residents, he said. An assisted living development planned for the second ward may add more than 100 emergency responses a year in that part of the city. Daily operating staffing remains comparable to levels of more than two decades ago even as total employment has increased, Chappell said. The division relied on recalls to supplement daily staffing nearly 80 times in 2025 because of overlapping or large incidents. The division transported 2,293 patients over the past 12 months, 1,096 of whom required advanced life support, Chappell said. EMS revenue exceeded $1 million in 2025 for the first time in division history, a figure that includes contracted service to Clinton Township and northern Eden Township along with medical coverage for university sports and community events. Participation in the Ohio Ambulance Provider Assessment Program is expected to provide more than $173,000 in additional annual revenue by recovering federal Medicaid dollars, he said. Since May 2025 the division responded to 47 fires, including 21 building fires, 11 of them residential, five commercial and five on mutual aid to other communities, along with 155 motor vehicle crashes and 387 false alarms, Chappell said. Average response time to fire incidents was 4 minutes, 42 seconds. A majority of false alarms occur on the college campuses, he said, and the division partnered with Tiffin University last year on informational postings intended to reduce preventable activations. Schedule change drives hiring The transition to a 24-hour on, 72-hour off schedule required reorganizing from three crews of 12 to four crews of 10, promoting additional officers and hiring more firefighters, Chappell said. Under the previous 24-48 schedule, firefighters worked 2,704 hours a year at an average starting salary of less than $56,500, the equivalent of less than $21 an hour, Chappell said. "That's not much when you consider the amount of training required to be a firefighter and a paramedic, the working of nights, weekends, holidays and kids' birthdays, all for a job that you risk your life doing every single shift," he said. The change has reversed a recruiting problem that had persisted for years, Chappell said, when hiring lists sometimes fell to four or five names and the division had become a stepping stone for candidates who moved on. "Our most recent hiring campaign produced 41 applicants, the most we've had in over 15 years," Chappell said. Seven were lateral hires with more than a year of full-time experience elsewhere. Fifteen of the division's 40 firefighters have been hired since January 2025, and 32 of the 40 are certified paramedics, with two more in school, Chappell said. Nearly 90% of the division's emergency activity is EMS-related. Asked by Council member John Hays about drawbacks of the new schedule, Chappell said the move to four crews of 10 temporarily reduced minimum daily staffing from nine to eight, and that the volume of new hires presents a training challenge. "The fire service prides itself on always knowing every little corner of its city and its response district," he said. "And with that many new people, it's just a ton of information for them to pick up on and be able to implement and act on quickly at an emergency scene." Council approved legislation that will eventually allow crews to grow to 11, Chappell said. Council gave second reading Monday to Ordinance 2026-46, which would repeal Section 143.07 of the city's codified ordinances and eliminate the fire/rescue division residency requirement. The ordinance would be up for third reading at council's next meeting. Food trucks and choking devices This is the first full year operating under the city's updated ordinance for mobile food preparation vehicles, Chappell said, and 34 are now licensed to operate in Tiffin. "The purpose of the ordinance is not to make it difficult to operate a food truck," he said. "The purpose is to identify hazards before an employee, customer or bystander could be injured." Chappell described one inspection that found a propane gas line whose protective jacket had deteriorated from an unshielded flame above it. The vehicle was unlicensed, had not been inspected and was parked illegally in the fire lane between the two main entrances of Walmart, he said. Deputy Chief Mike Homan told council the division used a grant of a little more than $1,600 from the Tiffin Community Foundation, accepted by council in March, to buy 30 LifeVac airway clearance devices. About 10 went to the police department and about six were being placed in city parks, he said. Homan said the devices are used to relieve choking when conventional methods fail, and that several police departments within 30 miles have had success with them. Asked by Council member Kevin Roessner about lithium-ion battery fires, Chappell said the batteries should never be placed in household trash, where compaction can rupture cells and cause thermal runaway. He said Lowe's maintains a drop box near its customer service desk for recycling. In other business Council suspended its three-reading rule, declared an emergency and passed Ordinance 2026-50 by a 6-0 vote, amending the 2026 budget to transfer and appropriate $138,000 into the Combined Sewer Separation Fund. Roessner said the money is for additional flow monitoring and data analysis in the Schonhardt and Main Street areas, transferred from the sewer WPCC fund. Council also suspended the rule and passed Ordinance 2026-49 by a 6-0 vote, authorizing the mayor to negotiate and accept permanent storm water easements from TH Plastics Inc. and the Diocese of Toledo Properties Trust. Hays said the post-construction maintenance agreements transfer maintenance responsibility to the property owner. Ordinance 2026-43 was tabled on a motion by Hays, seconded by Councilmember Aaron Jones, pending a 14-day notice period. Hays said the notice went out last Thursday and 14 days must pass before the ordinance can be passed. The ordinance would declare improvements to a parcel a public purpose and exempt from taxation and require service payments in lieu of taxes. A vote is expected at council's next meeting. The Recreation and Public Property Committee will meet at 5:15 p.m. Monday, July 27 in council chambers to discuss establishment of the All Patriots Memorial Committee and an option agreement with AFLP LLC for Lot 4 of the Eagle Rock North Subdivision. The Streets, Sidewalks and Sewers Committee will meet immediately after.