S. Zanesville Fire Chief Ups Recruitment Efforts, Pay

ZANESVILLE, Ohio — The fire chief in S. Zanesville is ramping up efforts to recruit new firefighters and paramedics, and preparing to pay them more.

“Starting January 4th, we’ll goto a new pay scale. Our EMT firefighters will be $12 per hour. Paramedics and advance firefighters will be $14 an hour. We kind of raised the pay up to try to hire more people because there’s such a great shortage of firefighters and paramedics in our county, especially on the paramedics side. It’s actually only a very small group of people that are involved in paramedic anymore,” says Russell Taylor, Fire Chief.

Taylor says the pay is low and the hours and training are long. He says it takes a community-minded person to be good at firefighting and being a medic.

“Typical day is to show up at work, do your truck checks, check your ambulance out and make sure you have all the proper equipment and everything’s up to date and in proper working order so if you get that call and someone needs help, you’ve got everything in place to do your job to the best of your ability,” he adds.

The S. Zanesville Fire Department is located on E. Main St., behind Coconis Furniture.