Valley City Fire Department has another record year for calls

LIVERPOOL TWP. — In 2024, the Valley City Fire Department broke its record for number of calls before the year was even over. Fire Chief Andy Baillis said the previous record was in 2023 with 771 calls. As of 9 a.m. on Friday, the department had 869 calls in 2024. "We still have several days left in the year, so that is probably going to change a bit, but that will be the next record year," he said. "We're moving up about 12 percent this year or greater, so that's something that is a pretty big accomplishment for a smaller department." Medical emergencies and crashes are the most frequent type of call, Baillis said. As the township's population ages, the number of calls go up. "It's industrywide," he said. "Everything's going up, so we're no different than that." Mutual aid in 2024 was similar to previous years, Baillis said. "Our give-and-take ratio is pretty constant because we've got a good working relationship with our neighbors like in Brunswick Hills, Erhart, city of Brunswick (and) Grafton Township," he said. "We all respond to mutual aid together because none of us can do it on our own." The Valley City Fire Department keeps working on reducing its response times, Baillis said. For November, it was 6 minutes and 20 seconds. "We're continuing to work on our part, which is getting out the door faster and faster," he said. The department was already able to decrease its response time at night once it switched to 24/7 staffing in February 2023, Baillis said. Before the switch, firefighters were on call at night. "When you have someone at the station, your response time is going to be six to seven minutes, and most of that is just driving time because our township is 25 square-miles…" he said. "Now that we have people at the station 24 hours a day, we reduce the amount of time it takes for that person to wake up, drive to the station to pick up the fire truck or ambulance and then respond." Baillis said the fire department is fortunate to maintain staffing at least two firefighters 24 hours a day throughout the year to be able to meet the community's needs for service. "We've got a very good department that's able to get out there and respond to those emergencies," he said. "We have a caring department that gets out there. We take part in a lot of public events and support the community because the community supports us, so it's a good working relationship." Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.