Ohio Fire Department Hires Consulting Firm

The Kettering City Council decided Tuesday night to take a closer look at their fire department. The council approved spending thousands of dollars to take a closer look at their so-called combination fire department. The combination model means the fire department used both full- and part-time firefighters. The full time firefighters work during the day, Monday through Friday, while the volunteers work at night, on holidays and weekends. City Council decided to spend $42,000 to hire Matrix Consulting to look at all aspects of the fire department. A recent NewsCenter 7 investigation found volunteer firefighter response times on the average are significantly slower than the full-time firefighters. Officials said they have to respond to fires from home. The same investigation found that some stations are actually closed down at certain times because of the lack of firefighters, meaning firefighting equipment must come from a further distance. Volunteers responded to a grease fire early Wednesday morning on Heatherdale near Marshall Road. They said two people inside the home managed to escape the fire safely. Matrix Consulting is expected to finish their report and bring it back to the City Council for review next February. Ketterings City Council did not say if it will make changes immediately if the report calls for it or simply use the report as an informational tool.