Kurt Westenkirchner discovered quickly the value of coffee in a 12-hour firehouse shift.

He works part-time with the Waterville and Providence Township fire departments, logging up to 35 hours a week in Waterville and 24 to 32 hours for Providence Township. When not on the clock, he volunteers for Waterville as well. It can be draining, but Mr. Westenkirchner loves his work.

“I definitely like the adrenaline rush of it,” the 22-year-old said. “I just like going out and doing everything there is to do with it.”

Part-timers working in multiple fire departments in the area is typical, as communities search for solutions to shrinking volunteer rosters, stagnant budgets, and increased demand.

Volunteers make up 69 percent of the firefighters in the country, according to the National Fire Protection Association, but the raw number fell 12 percent from 1984 to 2014 while the call volume nearly tripled nationwide from 1986 to 2013.

“We’re not trying to get rid of volunteers,” Waterville Fire Chief Pat Wambo said. “It’s just that we can’t get them. It’s just tough to get them because when they realize this is a lot of work, this is more than I thought, they don’t want to get involved.”

Volunteers in the area are not technically volunteers. All receive payment for responding to a call and for training, which has become a more prominent part of firefighting.

Chief Wambo requires his firefighters to go beyond the minimum 36-hour certification Ohio grants to volunteers, expecting each volunteer to be certified as a Firefighter I and an Emergency Medical Technician within a year of joining the roster. Those certifications require 150 hours of training each, according to Ohio law.

These requirements, along with weekly training sessions and changing demographics within Waterville, have whittled Chief Wambo’s volunteer roster down to around a dozen volunteers, including part-timers like Mr. Westenkirchner.

Waterville fire, which averaged 1.7 runs per day last year, was staffing its department from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. with one part-time employee who waits for volunteers to arrive at the station before getting on the road.

That will change with an additional $90,000 now in the 2017 budget for between four and five additional employees to increase staffing to two part-timers in the station at all times. This is aimed at countering the decline in volunteers without putting too much strain on the budget, officials said.

Joining forces

Departments in the area, all facing similar problems to varying degrees, have found ways to work together.

Genoa, Clay Center, and Allen Township, for example, formed a joint fire district in 2000, but those departments were responding to fewer calls then than Whitehouse or Waterville is now.

Toledo fire merged with Ottawa Hills fire and rescue in 2011, a move that ended up saving the village of Ottawa Hills $400,000 a year. Also in Lucas County, the Spencer Township fire department was absorbed this year by Springfield Township, which meant Spencer Township decided not to collect 3.5 mills in property taxes from residents for next year.

And just this past week, Swanton’s Village Council voted to conduct a feasibility study for a joint fire and emergency medical service district for jurisdictions in eastern Fulton County.

Despite a close relationship between the Waterville and Whitehouse fire departments, there’s little momentum for such drastic moves there.

“It should probably at least be considered in planning for the future,” Waterville municipal administrator Jim Bagdonas said. Creating a joint district would require action from elected officials, but the close cooperation between departments has already started.

Enough part-timers are employed at both Waterville and Whitehouse that Chief Wambo will meet with Chief Josh Hartbarger of Whitehouse to come up with a schedule that makes sense for both departments.

“My part-time people are his part-time people,” Chief Hartbarger said, “so if we try to create a schedule that is somewhat similar, you can maximize the number of people that can work with you with the hours, with the health-care act that we have that can limit us a little bit. That’s the type of stuff we have to do.”

Part-timers do not have benefits from the city.

“It’s an unfortunate part of what’s going on,” said Doug Stern, the director of communications and public relations for the Ohio Professional Fire Fighters. His organization only represents full-time firefighters, so he hopes departments will look toward promoting part-timers to full-time employees.

Mr. Westenkirchner is not currently concerned about the lack of benefits, but recognizes there will come a time that those things will matter.

“Hopefully, I’ll get somewhere full-time then,” he said.

Relying on aid

With tight budgets, the communities are limited in how many people can be hired and how much equipment can be purchased.

Providence Township’s Fire Department, for example, is operating with the same $228,000 budget it had 22 years ago.

Headed by volunteer fire chief and township trustee Jeremiah Floyd, the department, with around a 50/​50 split of part-time and pay-per-call firefighters, serves its own district along with providing aid to area fire departments for any structure fires.

“No way Whitehouse or Waterville can take care of a structure fire by themselves,” Chief Floyd said. “Other than a full-time station, you have to rely on aid.”

Chief Wambo said a dozen firefighters are needed for the average structure, so an automatic aid call is made for any structure fire.

“If we get a structure fire here in town, we automatically get responses from Whitehouse and Monclova,” he said.

On structure fire calls, which make up between 5 and 20 percent of an area department’s calls, a department is also likely relying on equipment from its neighbors.

“If I buy a certain piece of equipment, and I have an automatic aid with Waterville, why would Waterville want to buy that?” Chief Hartbarger said. He offered the example of an aerial platform truck, which Waterville has, but Whitehouse lacks, so it relies on the automatic aid from Waterville to bring that piece of equipment, which can cost municipalities upwards of $750,000.

“The cost of fire equipment is expensive to replace it, and does everyone need a certain piece of equipment? No,” Chief Wambo said. “We need to work together.”

Sharing resources is encouraged across the state, but the Fire Marshal’s office recognizes there’s no universal solution.

“We encourage people to look for opportunities to share resources,” Chief Deputy State Fire Marshal Jeff Hussey said, “but each community is unique.”

So despite a close working relationship, a joint fire district seems unlikely to materialize soon.

“We already do a lot of the things that would come with that and we do it effectively,” Chief Hartbarger said. “Still remaining somewhat autonomous with having the benefits of the regionalization, I think is a great type of a situation to be in.”

Contact Zack Lemon at: zlemon@theblade.com, 419-724-6282, or on Twitter @zack_lemon.

First Published December 4, 2016, 5:13 a.m.