Report says fire departments lag in response time

COLUMBUS (AP) — Few fire departments in fast-growing central Ohio meet the national standards for response time, a newspaper reported Sunday.

A Columbus Dispatch analysis of five years of fire records found that only two central Ohio departments met the National Fire Protection Association’s standard of having firefighters at the site of a fire in six minutes, nine out of every 10 runs. As the suburbs and exurbs have grown around Columbus, firehouses have not kept pace and cities have not invested in firefighters.

“The cost would be astronomical to do what they think you ought to do,” said West Licking Fire Chief Jim Weber, whose district sprawls over 109 square miles yet has a median response time of seven minutes.

Of 84 departments in central Ohio, 49 meet the standard less than half the time. The city of Columbus came close, making it to fires within six minutes 89 percent of the time. Only Grandview Heights and Lancaster departments met the standard, according to the Dispatch analysis.

Experts said the problem is not unique to Columbus.

“Fire protection in America is myth,” said Vincent Dunn, a retired New York City deputy fire chief. “The response times outside the center cities are too great, and the personnel responding inside and outside the center cities are too few.”