Fire officials in one Columbiana County community say they need help to make sure they can continue to keep people safe.
The Calcutta fire chief says they need to move from a volunteer department to a paid one.

Getting enough volunteers to staff a volunteer fire department is becoming a nation-wide problem.

According to the National Fire Protection Association, 70 percent of firefighters in the US are volunteers.

But the fire chief in Calcutta says it's now becoming a safety issue for his community.
Response times with a paid department can be at least seven minutes faster than a volunteer force.

"When you're in house all you got to do is grab your gear and you're out the door within a minute. When you have a volunteer unit, well, I'm coming from three miles away," said fire chief Dave McCoy.

Then there's all the businesses they have to serve. They all need at least yearly fire inspections.

"Because volunteer it's hard to staff and put them kind of hours in when all your people have other jobs," added McCoy.

So what can be done to change the department? They've already applied for a SAFER FEMA grant which could supply manpower funding for three full-timers for three years.
Other grants they applied for would also fund fire and EMT services.

Congressman Bill Johnson has written letters of support for those grants on behalf of Calcutta.

"You pass by the fire departments everyday. You say well, there they are but you don't think about them until your fire alarm goes off and you need that help," said Congressman Johnson.

The fire chief says the next step is to ask township trustees to put a levy on the ballot to specifically fund a full time-fire force.