Trouble at the Muskingum Twp. Fire Dept.

The Muskingum Township Trustees and the township fire chief are at odds tonight over an emergency ambulance.

Today, Chief John Benson was ordered to move the vehicle out of the fire station and stop all emergency medical services.

Benson received an emailed letter from the township trustees ordering the fire station to cease EMS services and to remove a recently purchased EMS medic from the property.

“That’s concerning to me,” said Benson. “We make one out of every six runs is a fire run. We have a lot of equipment to fight fire, but we don’t have a lot for ems. We have a first responder which the township trustees purchased at our request.”

Benson says the department was working with the trustees to develop an EMS medic squad. He says the trustees even sent some firefighters to EMS trainings.

So, when the opportunity to buy a medic vehicle came about, benson was surprised when the trustees said no to the purchase.

“It’s good to have a plan,” he said. “The future of the fire service is going from fire and going toward more EMS. All the townships around us are already on that step. We being one of the last township fire departments created in 1981, haven’t gotten to that stage yet.”

Benson says the department came together and it’s members voted to buy the vehicle with their own money. He the letter, ordering the station to cease EMS services, also requires moving the vehicle off the property.

“You could have knocked me over with a feather,” he said. “I just thought for intents and purposes, at the last meeting, the trustees were asked direct questions from several residents, what is there intention on the squad. They responded with we’re waiting on the fire department to get their ducks in a row, but if you read that letter it’s kind of,
‘Oops, you surprised us.'”

WHIZ spoke with Trustee Steve Fusner, who said there was nothing to talk about and he invited us to a towsnhip meeting. We were not able to get in contact with Trustee John Bunting.