By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
The Decatur Fire Department, looking to get back to full strength in personnel, currently has 18 candidates for two openings on its full-time staff.
That is an unusually high number of applicants for the department, which has lost five full-time (or career) firefighters since August of last year.
Those who have left have taken higher-paying positions with departments in Allen County.
Fire Chief Jeff Sheets told Decatur’s board of works and safety at its meeting Tuesday night that the 18 applicants were scheduled for agility testing last Saturday.
The latest full-time (or career) hires were Jeremy Jones and Jacob Baumann.
The chief also has the okay from the board to begin the process to hire a paid-on-call firefighter. There is one opening on that staff.
When fully staffed, the Decatur FD has nine full-time firefighters, plus Chief Sheet and Deputy Chief Chad Baumann.
The paid-on-call force is fully staffed with 25 men.
TO ADD CHAPLAIN: Chief Sheets was also given a green light to add a chaplain to the department, something it has not had in 15 or so years, he said.
Someone is interested in the position, he noted, and the person is not a firefighter.
It would be an unpaid position, the chief said.
NEW TRUCK SOON: The fire chief informed the board that he would lead a contingent from the department to travel to Appleton, Wisconsin, on May 18-19 for a final inspection of the department’s new fire truck.
It will arrive in Decatur soon after and, “once we get equipment moved over and some training, we should have it in service in two to three weeks,” he said.
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