ASHTABULA — City Fire Department Lieutenant Geoff Cannon is preparing to take over as fire chief March 19.
Cannon is replacing Shawn Gruber, is retiring March 18.
“Shawn’s done a really great job for the last 11 years, and I really just want to continue on the work that he’s done to get us to the point where we are right now,” Cannon said.
He became lieutenant around ten years ago, with a two-decade career in firefighting.
Cannon grew up in Painesville next-door to his grandfather, who was a firefighter for that city.
“I was pretty young when he retired, but I do remember he had a carpet business and a lot of the guys that weren’t retired would come over and have breakfast at him and my grandmother’s house,” Cannon said.
The sense of camaraderie Cannon saw among firefighters growing up got him interested in the career, he said.
“It’s like having a second family,” he said. “It’s a pretty cool thing to be a part of.”
Cannon’s career started in 2004 as a part-time firefighter in Fairport and Painesville townships, before moving to Ashtabula with his future wife in 2006.
He said he remembers being on duty at the AFD during an ice storm in the 2000s, when he and other firefighters had to rescue people from an apartment fire.
“When I got hired, we didn’t have an ambulance here at the fire station, so we were running a lot more fires. We were going on fewer calls,” he said. “Now, we’re going on far more calls, a lot more EMS calls.”
As he rose the ranks, Cannon said he saw the city change around him, especially in the area of Bridge Street.
“The transformation there has really been incredible in the last 20 years,” he said. “You’re starting to see it filter out more into the city, and that’s a pretty neat thing to watch. It happens slowly, so it’s not like big hotels pop up every day.”
Cannon said Gruber has been very helpful, showing him the ropes of how to administer the fire department.
“Shawn was a lieutenant when I started here as a new guy, and he’s been kind of a mentor to me my whole career,” he said.
Cannon is taking over at a time when the AFD is being hit by challenges afflicting other fire departments across the region.
Statewide, many fire departments are having a hard time recruiting volunteers and staff.
“We have to take the civil service tests to get hired,” Cannon said. “And when I was testing, you took every test you could, and there’s 100, 200 people for one or two jobs. Now, we’ve seen lists as small as seven or eight people on it.”
There is not just one cause for the issue, but many younger people appear less interested in firefighting and other hands-on jobs, instead turning toward technology-related careers, Cannon said.
“That’s my own personal opinion, that’s not necessarily scientific data,” he said.
Despite that, Cannon said the AFD does a great job retaining its staff by making the department a friendly working environment.
Rising costs and increased wait times for vehicles have also impacted emergency services.
A new ladder truck will be delivered to the AFD later this fall, years after the city ordered it, Cannon said.
“You can’t go to the store and get a new one when [a vehicle] breaks or is completely at the end of its life,” he said. “You have to think pretty far in advance, and the costs are skyrocketing. I mean they’re, in some cases, doubling plus what there were just a few years ago.”
The city’s current ladder truck is from around 1991, Cannon said.
“For a vehicle in Northeast Ohio, I think that’s about as much as you can really expect out of it,” he said.
The unmanned U.S. Coast Guard station is another challenge for the AFD and other county departments along Lake Erie.
Cannon said he wants the AFD to continue building relationships with neighboring fire departments like Saybrook and bringing in water rescue training for firefighters.
