{"id":40210,"date":"2026-09-22T17:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T21:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=40210"},"modified":"2026-09-22T17:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T21:24:16","slug":"decatur-fd-adds-2-now-fully-staffed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/22\/decatur-fd-adds-2-now-fully-staffed\/","title":{"rendered":"Decatur FD adds two, now fully staffed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Decatur Fire Department has returned to full capacity with the addition of two new firefighters: Ben Walter and Maddux Hillery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both were sworn in sworn in Friday and officially began their duties on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walter is a graduate of Jay County High School, an Army veteran, a husband and a father, Fire Chief Sheets told Decatur’s board of works and safety at its recent meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Ben Walter
<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He had been working in a welding and fabrication position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walter, the son of Allen and Stacie Walter, is married to Michaela Walter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben looks forward to serving and getting to know the Decatur community, Sheets said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hillery, a Bellmont High School grad, is transitioning from a paid-on-call position to a full-time or career position with the Decatur department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Maddux Hillery
<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He had been an employee of the town of Ossian as a utility worker and a motorcycle safety instructor throughout Indiana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The son of David and Heather Hillry, Maddux is a first-generation firefighter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe looks forward to continuing his commitment to the community,\u201d Sheets noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FROM 18: Walter and Hillary were chosen from an original field of 18 applicants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The addition of the two will boost the department back to full capacity with nine career firefighters, plus Chief Sheets and Deputy Chief Chad Baumann.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The paid-on-call (volunteer) staff is at full capacity at 25, but will now have a vacancy with Hillary moving to full-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The local department has lost five full-time\/career fighters since early August of last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who have left have taken higher-paying positions with departments in Allen County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com The Decatur Fire Department has returned to full capacity with the addition of two<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":40212,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,15,21],"class_list":["post-40210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-featured","tag-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Maddux-Hillery.jpg?fit=472%2C773&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40210"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40214,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40210\/revisions\/40214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}