The ranks of the Brookfield Volunteer Fire Department have been thin in recent years, but now that the squad is up to 10 members it can do more normal things, such as electing officers.
When the volunteers only numbered five, there wasn’t much point to holding an election, said Jim Richmond, the volunteer president and a fire department captain.
Meeting Jan. 15, the volunteers elected Richmond as president, Burton Miller as vice president, Tom Powell as secretary and Aaron Kasiewicz as treasurer. They also named Jordan Streamo, Mike Hagood and Gene McCarthy as trustees.
The township trustees approved a new three-year contract with the volunteers Jan. 27. Richmond and Kasiewicz, who met with the trustees, asked for no changes in the terms.
Jim Richmond
“We’re status quo,” said Richmond, who has been a Brookfield volunteer for more than 35 years.
As part of the relationship, the township pays the volunteers $16,500 a year, the money used to “better the department and the community in which it serves and protects,” according to the contract. The volunteers often have funneled that money back into the department, such as by buying equipment or supporting the junior academy designed to interest children in the fire service.
Although they are volunteers, the members are paid when they respond to fire calls or car crashes: $25 for those who have at least Firefighter 1 certifications, and $15 for those who are not certified.
There are a couple of factors that have contributed to the modest growth of the department, officials said: family issues smoothing out for former volunteers who wanted to get back into it, and new members interested in the fire service.
The COVID-19 pandemic “wiped us out,” said Kasiewicz, who also is the township’s police chief. “Nobody came to anything. Nobody wanted to come out and help with stuff. Now, we’re through that and everyone’s getting back to their daily stuff.”
Still, 10 is not a lot of people, and it’s hard to attract folks when the training requirements are so rigid and a non-certified person cannot assist in the actual fighting of a fire. A person needs to have at least a Firefighter 1 certification to fight a fire.
“We can allow anybody to do anything on the outside of a fire,” Masirovits said. “An untrained firefighter can be on a hose line on the exterior of a fire. That’s perfectly legal, if there’s somebody with them that’s trained, but they can never make entry. They can never put an SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus) on.”
Due to declining numbers of people entering the fire service, the state of Ohio and the Volunteer Fire Council have run recruitment campaigns, both of which have resulted in new volunteers in Brookfield, said Fire Chief David Masirovits.
The chief added that the department is not attracting trained volunteers.
“That’s good in some aspects but tough in others,” he said. “There’s a huge cost associated with fire school now. Untrained personnel can’t do much until they’re trained, and that’s when they find out, ‘Ah, this isn’t for me.’”
A fire department can invest thousands of dollars in training and equipment for a volunteer who decides not to follow through, Masirovits said.
After a volunteer is certified, there are continuing training requirements, just as there are for paid firefighters, he said.
“That takes its toll on the everyday person,” the chief said.
Still, Richmond would like to see the roster grow. “Hopefully, we’ll get a few more” volunteers, he said.
Township Trustee Dan Suttles, a former volunteer and professional firefighter, said he’s thankful the numbers have grown.
“We don’t take our volunteers for granted,” he said.
