NORTH COLLEGE HILL, Ohio — Fire and EMS departments from Colerain Township, Springfield Township and Mt. Healthy will be providing mutual aid to North College Hill after around 75% of the city's fire department resigned.
A release from the three communities says they will assist in North College Hill per the Hamilton County Fire Chiefs Association Mutual Aid Agreement, which allows departments across the county to assist nearby areas in times of need.
North College Hill will be losing a majority of its fire department — including all chief officers — on March 17 after firefighters said the "mental, emotional, physical and financial tolls have culminated to this breaking point."
Cincinnati Firefighters Union Local 48 President Matt Alters warned the mutual aid wouldn't be a realistic solution to fire service in the area for long.
"With complete candor, it's going to be difficult," Alter said.
The union president said North College Hill responds to around 3,100 calls for service a year, averaging nine or 10 a day, and those calls will now need to be absorbed by the surrounding departments.
"One working fire may require the resources of four or five departments," he said. "If they're all working an incident, it leaves a large vacuum."
The union overseeing North College Hill's remaining staff warned of safety concerns if the city doesn't act to recoup staffing levels quickly.
"Despite confronting limited resources and staffing, our members strive to provide the best possible services to the community," North College Hill Fire Fighters Local 5279 President Kyle A. Suttles said in a statement. "However, the ongoing situation has put our members' safety at risk due to inadequate staffing."
The three communities providing mutual aid said their help will not supersede their departments' roles in their own communities.
"(We) want to assure everyone that we are committed to providing the same level of professional service to our residents and businesses that they expect and deserve," the release says.
Their assistance is not the long-term solution to North College Hill's issue. At the city's budget and finance meeting Monday night, City Administrator Jennifer Ekey said leaders plan to have their long-term strategy ready by the end of the week.
Colerain Township, Springfield Township and Mt. Healthy said in their release that they are working on a more permanent solution to help North College Hill "without diminishing our ability to provide the same to our respective communities."
Alters urged people in the community to put pressure on elected officials to find a fix quickly as "mutual aid," in his opinion, wasn't a viable option.
"If those services are not provided at all, that's not a plan B. That now becomes their plan A, and then that could become problematic," he said.
North College Hill City Council has a full council meeting for the first time since the firefighters pledged to walk out on Monday at 7 p.m.
WCPO will update this story with more information when it is available.
