Two close calls cause firefighters concern

By Denise Dick

Firefighters had been dispatched to a medical call shortly before the fire.

BOARDMAN — Gas being pumped into a trencher at Rental Corral caused a fire at the business Friday.

Fire Chief James Dorman said there were no injuries and the fire was contained to the rear area of the Market Street business. No damage estimate was available.

Dorman said that an employee was pumping gas into the trencher and walked away to attend to a customer late Friday morning. The fumes ignited, causing a fire. It damaged a shelving unit, wall and an electrical panel.

“We had blue lights arcing out at us,” the chief said.

Crews also had been dispatched to a medical call at Market and Midlothian Boulevard shortly before the fire call came in. The radios the department uses to communicate with the dispatch center were down because of a technical problem, causing firefighters to switch to another signal.

The medical call ended up being a false alarm.

“When I first heard the fire call, my first thought was, are my guys going to be able to handle this,” Dorman said. “Should I call for mutual aid?”

Because of budget shortfalls, nine firefighters were laid off earlier this year, taking the department to 30 full-timers. Today marks the first shift since the township discontinued the minimum manning practice for the fire department that required at least nine firefighters on duty per shift.

Because no one was on vacation Friday, nine remained on duty.

The two calls were close together, so after determining the medical call was a false alarm, Dorman and the firefighters who had responded to that call headed for the fire.

Friday’s fire was contained and it wasn’t necessary to call upon surrounding departments for assistance, but the chief said that it’s something that he or the firefighter in charge will have to determine whenever a fire call comes in.

“And the thing with that is they’re 10 minutes out,” Dorman said of other departments.