DELTA, Ohio — For the first time ever, the Delta Community Fire Department has round-the-clock service after it hired its first full-time crew.
As of Feb. 10, there are seven people within the department who are full-time employees: EMT Angie Zeigler, paramedics Kim Nofziger, Tyler Hogrefe and Dan Timpe, Lt. Sean Smith, Assistant Chief Jon Gillen and Chief Jeremy Gillen.
Jeremy Gillen said it's a big step for a department that was previously part-time and volunteer-based.
"It started out back in the 1800s with three people as a committee of three to recommend different things to the town council," Chief Gillen said. "Over the years, it has just evolved."
DCFD now has a coverage area of more than 102 square miles, serving the entire village of Delta as well as parts of York, Pike, Fulton and Swancreek townships. For perspective, that's about three-quarters the size of Detroit.
Gillen said that the coverage area is big compared to what other similarly-sized departments cover.
Covering over 100 square miles is only one of the reasons for bringing on full-time employees.
"Primarily, it was driven by the need for EMS," Gillen said. "Like most jurisdictions, the EMS realm is a lot of what fire departments do. Here, it's about 75% of our call volume."
In the past, the department always contracted out EMS.
Now, it's opening up opportunities to some of the people who have grown up in the tight-knit community.
"It's surreal," Timpe said. "I've always wanted to help people, so being able to help people in my own community is phenomenal to me."
Zeigler has also been a longtime community member looking to serve her neighbors.
"I started here almost 10 years ago as just a volunteer," Ziegler said. "That was as far as I was going to do. I loved it so much, I obtained my EMR and then my fire card."
Along with a new full-time position, Zeigler is back in school to become a paramedic.
The DCFD team said most of the coverage area is rural, but the village and surrounding areas have seen growth.
"A lot of the west edge of town has commercial businesses that are coming in," Gillen said. "That's a lot of growth that we've been seeing in the last two to three years. It has changed some of our response priorities."
The department has a total of 40 employees, made up of full-time, part-time and volunteers. Gillen said more are in the process of joining, as a new class starts next month and will have five more volunteer firefighters.