Troy Fire Chief Holds Open House to Help Bridge Gaps
Troy Township Fire Chief Jim Nix believes the department’s May 10 open house successfully strengthened the bond between residents and the people who protect them.
Troy Township Fire Chief Jim Nix believes the department’s May 10 open house successfully strengthened the bond between residents and the people who protect them.
“I thought it was just a huge success, a great outpouring from the people and residents in Troy,” Nix said at the May 20 Troy Township Trustees meeting.
Twenty-two members of the fire department came and there was a good turn out from the community, he said.
“The morale is improving, it was wonderful,” he said.
Nix also wanted residents to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the department.
“(The goal) was to allow the residents and the businesses to come and meet their firefighter-EMTs, see the stations, see where we work and see the equipment that we use to help them and service them and protect them,” he said in a May 21 interview.
During the open house, Nix used a fog machine and mannequin to illustrate the limited eyesight firefighters have when entering homes filled with smoke, even on bright, sunny days.
“That was an eye-awakening moment for a lot of them, to see the conditions of which sometimes we are faced with,” the chief said.
Nix also wanted to use the open house as a way to bridge any gaps of trust between him/the department and the community.
“When I was sworn in, I heard a lot of concerns from the residents, rightfully so. With change comes uncertainty and nervousness and I think we put that to rest once and for all, and that was the goal,” he said. “This fire department is not about me or the members, it’s about the community, it’s about the residents and the businesses. They pay the taxes to have that service provided to them and we just want to make sure we can provide the best coverage that we can for them and the best service.”
In other fire department business, Trustee Donn Breckenridge swore in Jacoby Behm as a new firefighter during the May 20 trustees meeting.
Behm has experience working for Community Care Ambulance in Middlefield and Midwest Medical in Troy, but his ultimate goal was to become a firefighter-EMT, Nix said.
Behm graduated from the fire academy late last year, he added.
“(We are) getting more protection and less days that we’ll have somebody that’s not there,” Nix said.
Behm was hired as a firefighter II, which is the highest level of firefighter certification in Ohio, Nix said.
