Dover Fire Department celebrates 150 years with open house
Firefighter Brent Bauman, left, engineer Matt Hamsher and Lt. A.J. Moore were on duty recently at Dover Fire Department Station 2 on Dublin Drive.
The Dover Fire Department will celebrate its 150th anniversary on May 20 at Dover Fire Station 2 at 200 Dublin Drive with an open house from noon to 4 p.m.
Chief Russell Volkert and Mayor Shane Gunnoe will host the opening ceremonies with representatives from the Cleveland Firefighters Memorial Pipes and Drums Band. The event is being planned by Lt. J.R. Dennison and other members of the department.
Dover Fire House #2 was opened Aug. 9, 2019, and the department had planned to hold an open house the following year, but the event was scrapped when COVID hit. This event will be the first open house of the new firehouse.
“We’ll be giving tours through the fire station. In our bay one of the guys is putting together a presentation that will show pictures and just different things about the fire department on a continual play. There’ll be some activities for the kids with bounce houses,” Dennison said. “There’ll be a display for different fire-safety stuff.”
Other fire department apparatus also will be on display. They will have a fake home display that will allow children to put out flames from a safe distance with a garden hose.
The Dover Fire Department’s first motorized pumper, a 1925 Ahrens Fox, owned by Tim Elder of Louisville, will be on display at the event.
The department will cook hot dogs and provide chips, water, lemonade and coffee to visitors.
“It will just be a good time for the community to interact with us and for us to interact with them and show them what we do provide. We will have some information about the services they receive here in the city and answer any questions that anyone might have,” Dennison said. “I really think the tour will be interesting for most people to see what they have here in the city and to see the different resources available.”
Twenty-four firefighters make up the department today, and they do more than fight fires. Ambulance runs are their most needed service, amounting to 70% of their calls.
When the city began providing ambulance service in 1979, they had 564 calls. In 2022 they made 2,470 ambulance calls. All of today’s firefighters are trained as paramedics. Other services they provide are water rescue, a dive team along with members of the New Philadelphia Fire Department, trench rescue, confined spaces rescue, HAZMAT and rope rescue.
“The greatest strength we have is our staff,” Volkert said.
The Dover Fire Department’s history began in 1873 when it was informally created. Then in 1874 Dover Council made it an official city organization. In 1901 Henry Geib became the first paid fire chief for the department, and in 1919 they put on the first three paid members.
In 1967 the city bought a snorkel truck, which was the first fire department aerial device in the county.
EMS transport began in 1979, and by the early 1980s, the DFD was a full career department. Emergency care runs were made prior to 1979, but that year was when they began running an ambulance. In 1992 the department began paramedic level service.
“The next big hallmark was the expansion in 2019 when we opened our second station and added six members,” Volkert said.
The planning standard for fire departments is to have a station available to cover emergencies within a 1 1/2 mile radius. With the new department, that and future growth of the city will keep first responders close by.
“Where it’s located, Dover could grow quite a bit and that will still be true,” Volkert said. “The other reason was to have enough people on duty to handle back-to-back calls.”
Call volume has increased over the years, and 70% of the department’s calls are ambulance calls.
Today, the department operates two ambulances, two pumpers and — soon to be added — a third rescue truck tanker, three boats, a rescue truck and other miscellaneous equipment.
Firefighters at Dover work 24-hour shifts with 48 hours off. Every day, except Sundays, during time when they are not answering calls, there are other tasks that need done, like cleaning the station, equipment and the inventory of the ambulance supplies.
A new focus of the DFD, headed by Capt. Joe Minocchi, will be community risk-reduction efforts. The new program will provide outreach information to help the public stay safe and help prevent the need for a call for help.
Volkert remembered the worst fire in the history of the city that occurred in the late 1990s when a family of four perished in their home on East Fourth Street. He encourages everyone to have working smoke detectors in their homes as this may have prevented the tragedy.
Education for the public is something the DFD has always done.
“It’s become very clear that it’s very important to make it a consistent effort,” Volkert said.