After 60 years of providing service to its community, the Fairfield Township volunteer fire and EMS service will come to an end.
Effective Feb. 3, fire and EMT specialists will be provided by part-time employees 24 hours a day.
Fire and EMS service has been strictly on a volunteer basis in Fairfield since the departments inception in 1947.
The need for part-time personnel is due to the decline in volunteer recruitment not only in Fairfield Township, but across the nation, said Fire Chief David Downie.
The decline in volunteer firefighters is a statewide issue, as volunteer firefighters in Ohio have dropped from 34,000 to 30,000 over the past 10 years. Downie attributes this statistic to the growing fact that families need two steady incomes and attend to their childrens involvement in year-round sports.
Fairfield will continue to recruit township resident for volunteer service in order to maintain a reserve unit that will supplement part-time personnel when necessary.
