At the Southgate city council meeting, Fire Chief John Beatsch introduced two volunteer firefighters and discussed the fire department’s recruitment program.
“The fire department is part of a federal grant with Southern Campbell, Alexandria and Burlington Fire departments for a scholarship program for firefighters and junior firefighters,” said Beatsch.
Over the last few weeks, Beatsch said, the department has gained two junior firefighters and two firefighters who are going to be part of the program. The department now has six individuals as part of the program, which Beatsch said is the maximum they can have.
“The benefit of that is, besides they get education paid for, if they want to take CPR training or paramedic training, they can. The bigger benefit for us is that we have them for their manpower. They’re given a full set of turnout gear which is worth about $4,000 and a uniform. So it’s a benefit to us to have them,” said Beatsch.
The chief then introduced two of the firefighters in the program. Both were on duty and stopped in to check out the council meeting.
“This is Tommaso Giannetta and Jackson Curry. I want to congratulate Tommaso. He just passed his physical agility test that you have to take in order to be a paid firefighter. He’s an EMT. He will probably be getting hired someplace full time in the very near future but he has promised me that he will stick around with Southgate and still help us out as much as he can. Jackson is an EMT graduate…[he] just got cleared to run on the life squad,” said Beatsch.
Curry is a Southgate resident and has been with the program for more than three years. Giannetta found the program online and came here from Hong Kong. Both plan to become career firefighters.
Council member Mark Messmer said the Southgate Volunteer Fire Department is the only volunteer program in the area. The new program provides those interested in becoming a career firefighter the opportunity to get the training, certification classes and the experience time to launch their careers.
“And we need more volunteers,” he said. He encouraged people interested in the fire department to give them a call at 859-441-1422.