AFD has not received proper support from the city it serves.
Athens has roughly one-third of the full-time firefighters that Oxford has.
That wouldn’t seem like a problem if Oxford had a dramatically larger population than Athens, but the home of Miami University has a few thousand less residents than Athens, making the problem clear.
Athens has experienced similar issues with Athens Police Department, which is also quite understaffed, according to a Post report published last spring.
It is very clear to us that the city needs to hire more firefighters and also make the fire department a higher priority on its list because the department is an integral safety measure in Athens.
As Ohio University’s population continues to expand, you would think that the city would hire more officials, particularly the ones that deal with safety issues. Instead of compensating for the increase in people by hiring more firefighters, Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl said new, safer technologies in buildings makes it more safe when it comes to handling situations involving a fire.
On any given day, if Athens Fire Department is down just four firefighters, it must shut down one station in the city.
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For the record, Athens only has two fire stations, meaning that on those days, essentially half of Athens must be covered by the other fire station. That hasn’t happened too much recently; Athens Fire Chief Bob Rymer was only able to recall a couple instances in 2015, but the fact that this option exists is what’s the most concerning.
The city also needs to renovate one of the fire stations, and spent nearly $1 million doing just that, but the building is still in need of major repairs.
That is not the fault of AFD, though, as 2015 marked the eighth year that the department has requested a new station. Its requests have been largely unanswered or unacknowledged by the city.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post's executive editors: Editor-in-Chief Emma Ockerman, Managing Editor Rebekah Barnes, Opinion Editor Will Gibbs and Digital Managing Editor Samuel Howard. Post editorials are independent of the publication's news coverage.
