Fire chief warns of scams popping up

Fire Chief Jeff Young is warning residents that more scams are popping up and they should beware.

Sheffield Village Fire Chief Jeff Young is warning residents to never give money to people going door to door or calling stating they are raising money for the fire department.

Young told City Council during its regular meeting July 25, that recently there are people around Ohio doing this and stating they are raising money for their local fire department. He said he hasn’t heard any instances of it happening in Sheffield Village.

“The Sheffield Village Fire Department will never go door to door or looking for donations and we never have, and we won’t make phone calls for donations either,” Young said. “But these people are using department’s names and if you could imagine we’re very well-supported in this town, people like us a lot and we appreciate that, but we don’t want people (getting ripped off).”

He said if someone were to give someone money in Sheffield Village claiming it’s for the fire department, the money will not go there, he said. Young said most of these incidents are occurring around Columbus.

Whenever there’s a tragedy with safety forces, which, he said, has been happening a lot lately, that’s when these types of scams pop up.

“When everybody’s awareness and feelings are toward cops and firemen, they start this stuff, so, I just wanted to make a statement that if somebody calls, that’s not us,” Young said. “We don’t do that, we have no reason to do it, we’re tax supported, we don’t need that stuff.”

Some volunteer places may do this, but he said he is just speaking for Sheffield Village.

In other news, the fire department has recently been awarded two grants for equipment and City Council passed, on emergency, to purchase 30 self-contained breathing apparatus tanks.

The first grant that the fire department received is from FEMA’s Assistance to Firefighters program for $196,000 for the breathing apparatus.

“This equipment has to be replaced by law every 15 years and it’s coming up to 15 years so we’ve been working on this for a while,” Sheffield Village Mayor John Hunter said.

Another grant for the department is from the state for $2,700 for emergency medical equipment.

Young thanked City Council and the administration for getting the tanks on “his guys’ backs.” He said he has a meeting with FEMA on Aug. 2 and he expects now with this legislation passed, the fire department can make the order. The delivery runs about two to three weeks, Young said, and the department should have the tanks by the time City Council comes back from summer recess.

“They’re really a big improvement in firefighter safety,” he said.