Understaffing At Oxford, Ohio, Fire Department Prompts Safety Concerns

BY ANNIE EDWARDS and CHARLES BLADES
Miami University journalism students

The City of Oxford’s Fire Department and EMS Services provide assistance to Miami University students and local residents within a 53-square-mile radius. However, the department is only staffed with four full-time employees. According to local officials, this understaffing has put the local community at risk.

Sarah Hudnall, full-time firefighter/paramedic says that when calls come in, it’s first-come first-serve, no matter how severe one may be. “When all of us are making 15 calls out on the university in five hours,” says Hudnall. “Who’s to say someone at the nursing homes is not having full arrest and we can’t go because we have to take someone who drank too much at Brick Street Bar and Grill to McCullough-Hyde.”

The Miami students are taxing on Fire and EMS Protection services with 35 percent of their calls dealing with people between the ages of 17-24, while only 33 percent of the calls deal with people 60 and up.

Oxford Fire and EMS Captain Chris Johns is well aware of the impact this has on his department's ability to do their job. “I think this year we’ll probably do almost 3,000 calls,” says Johns. “With four personnel on station, weekends we up staff to five, sometimes we have six, but there’s still many times three ambulances are out on call and leaving nobody in the city to make fire or other EMS call.”

Captain John’s concerns are compounded by the fact that many of the calls that occur around the hours of 11 to midnight from students dealing with excess drinking and triggered fire alarms.

Jessi Zachman, a second-year resident assistant in Porter Hall, home to over 200 Miami students, says the fire department has made frequent visits this year due to non-emergency fire alarms.

“This is a really old dorm so anything will set off the smoke detector,” says Zachman. “It was hairspray one time at 6 in the morning. Another time it was burnt popcorn."

With only four full-time ire and EMS officers on call at once, a call for hairspray could mean the difference between a slow or fast ambulance for someone in need.