Ravenna looking to hire more firefighters, EMTs

Ravenna City Council is poised to add additional new firefighter/EMT positions, but how many remains up for debate. In draft legislation council considered last month, the number of new hires was not specified.

Council is expected to set the number, and perhaps authorize the legislation, when it meets Feb. 2.

The Ravenna Fire Department serves Ravenna’s 11,500 residents within its 5.6-square-mile boundary, 1,834 residents in Charlestown Township’s 23.1 square miles and the 21,000-acre Camp James A. Garfield Joint Military Training Center. In 2025, the station tallied 3,479 calls, of which 2,737 were EMS-related.

RFD currently employs 24: Fire Chief Mark Chapple, three captains, three lieutenants, 15 full-time firefighters, a fire prevention officer and an administrative assistant. Chapple responds to calls on an as-needed basis, while the fire prevention officer and administrative assistant do not respond to calls.

Chapple told The Portager even three new hires would allow him to assign eight people per shift, with a five-person minimum. Now it’s seven per shift, with a four-person minimum, leaving no one on station when two calls come in back-to-back or overlap. 

“We haven't had an increase in staffing levels in over 40 years until 2024, when the current administration and members of council allowed us to go from six-person shifts to seven-person shifts.
In this 40-year period of time, our call volumes have almost tripled in numbers,” Chapple said.

With 40%-45% of RFD’s calls coming in back-to-back or overlapping, Chapple’s current options are limited. He can issue a general alarm aimed at off-duty personnel or he can rely on mutual aid, which delays response time when seconds can matter.

One of RFD’s three ambulances usually remains on station, with no one to staff it and still provide firefighter protection should a call of that nature come in, Chapple said.

Finding personnel isn’t as easy as sifting through stacks of resumes. Not that the stacks even exist. Decades ago, hundreds of applicants vied for each firefighter job, but now fire chiefs typically find themselves choosing amongst a handful of candidates, he said.

It’s hard to find a person willing to work 24-hour shifts punctuated by nine or more calls, Chapple said. Sleep suffers, he said, as does critical “down time” to decompress between calls.

“Have you ever seen somebody get killed in a car accident? Have you ever seen somebody burn in a house? That's the thing that you want to try to mitigate and try to take care of, but you don't know what impact that's gonna have on you until you actually see it and endure it,” he said.

To address the stress, RFD offers a voluntary, confidential mental health awareness program and peer support. It also encourages employees to work out on a regular basis.

And even though a candidate might be willing, Chapple has another factor to consider.

“Not only do we have to be a good fit for a candidate, but a candidate has to be a good fit for our department,” he said.

Chapple said he’s heartened by the number of applicants he currently has. Instead of the 10 or 15 candidates he had to consider last year, he said he’s already looking at 25.

“Ravenna must be doing something right,” he said.

The application deadline for full-time firefighter/EMTs working in other departments is Feb. 13. Applicants who are not engaged with other departments may apply online, with no deadline, at nationaltestingnetwork.com.