Ohio’s Volunteer Firefighters: A System Under Strain
Meta Description: A crisis looms for Ohio’s volunteer firefighters, who face increasing risks, dwindling numbers, and inadequate training, as highlighted by the east Palestine derailment.
Three years ago, a fiery train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, exposed the critical role – and inherent vulnerabilities – of volunteer firefighters. The incident, where a Norfolk Southern freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed, releasing vinyl chloride into the air and prompting the evacuation of half the town’s 5,000 residents, was initially met by a first responder with limited expertise in handling such a complex emergency. As local Fire Chief Keith drabick later recounted to the National Transportation Safety Board, the first arriving crews were “overwhelmed” and lacked the specialized training needed to address the unfolding disaster. The East Palestine derailment served as a stark reminder of the increasingly placed upon volunteer firefighters across Ohio.
These dedicated individuals – often serving as firefighters and emergency medical services responders – are routinely called upon to handle life-or-death situations, from recovering bodies and responding to fatal car crashes to battling blazes, often with minimal pay and as little as 36 hours of training. The situation is critical: a state task force had already warned of rising fatalities,insufficient training,and a recruitment crisis,with volunteers staffing 70% of Ohio’s 1,180 fire departments. “Unfortunately, these volunteer services are seeing changing times. Many of these volunteer service departments are in jeopardy,” Governor Mike DeWine stated in 2022 upon forming the task force, emphasizing the urgent need for “fresh solutions.”
The roots of Ohio’s reliance on volunteer firefighters run deep, tracing back to the 18th century and the emergence of community bucket brigades. These early fire societies were self-financed and independent of local governments. As communities grew, however, a competitive – and sometimes chaotic – system emerged. Volunteer departments frequently enough relied on fire insurance companies for funding, only responding to fires at properties with the appropriate “fire mark.” Competition for insurance payouts even led to physical altercations. As Kenny Rybka, a former volunteer firefighter and current staff member at the Western Reserve Fire Museum in Cleveland, explained, “There would actually be fistfights in the street in front of the fire building… They would take axes and cut the other fire company’s hoses. And it was a mess.”
This unruly system prompted cincinnati to establish the first fully paid,professional fire department in 1853,a model that gradually spread across the nation. However, the financial realities of maintaining a full-time department, notably in rural areas with limited tax bases, meant that many communities continued to rely on volunteers. Today, nearly three-quarters of Ohio’s fire departments remain staffed by volunteers.
The consequences of this reliance are becoming increasingly dire. Ohio State Fire Marshal Kevin reardon asserts that the current system puts both volunteers and residents at risk. “The threats, the fire risks, the fire hazards, they’ve all increased,” he saeid, noting a corresponding rise in line-of-duty deaths. Data analysis reveals a troubling trend: between 1990 and 2025, 57% of firefighter fatalities in Ohio were volunteers – 10 percentage points higher than the national average.Almost half of these deaths were attributed to overexertion.
Response times are also suffering. Volunteer departments typically take more than two minutes longer to respond to emergencies than full-time departments – a critical delay that can have devastating consequences. Reardon bluntly stated, “They’re not gonna make any saves with it with a 10-minute response time. You’re not gonna save anything or anybody. You’re not even gonna save the mailbox.”
Compounding the problem is an aging volunteer base, with the average volunteer firefighter now 54 years old, and a decline in new recruits. Service calls have increased by 23% for volunteer departments between 2020 and 2024, according to data from the Ohio Department of Commerce, while the number of active volunteer firefighter certifications has decreased by nearly 15% since January 2020, according to data from Ohio Emergency Medical Services. Reardon dismisses the notion that firefighting is merely a hobby, stating, “They do it to serve their community.”
This week, a deeper examination will explore the challenges faced by these volunteers, the lack of adequate support, and potential solutions for the future of volunteer firefighting, beginning tomorrow with a look at the funding difficulties confronting small volunteer departments. Abigail Bottar and Kendall Crawford contributed reporting to this story.
