150 years of the Utica Fire Department

The Utica Fire Department is celebrating 150 years of service this year, and Fire Chief Scott Ingersoll recently reflected on the department’s history, recent challenges, and ongoing commitment to the community.

Once upon a time, when Utica was a much smaller city, there was a great need for a more organized fire service. Ingersoll said, in 1874, the smaller volunteer departments in the city of Utica merged together to become a paid organization.

“During that time, the city was so different. It didn’t have as big of a footprint, but it was much more condensed and had large factories,” Ingersoll said. “It was a center hub for textile products. I mean, just right across from the fire department here [on Bleecker Street], there was a textile mill.”

With such industry in the area and the threat of conflagration a real possibility, a fully staffed fire department was needed. Ingersoll said the more affluent business owners of Utica banded together to push the city to create a new fire department.

As the city grew in size, so did the fire department.

At its peak, the Utica Fire Department had 256 members and 13 fire stations. After some consolidation and thanks to the advent of new technologies — such as vehicle-driven pumps and a fire hydrant system — the Department now operates with 132 members.

Of the 13 fire stations, three remain.

The Utica Fire Department still has two stations that were opened in 1906. The one at 1320 Bleecker St. is now a fire academy, and the other at 1522 Whitesboro St. is Station 1. Ingersoll said the Whitesboro Street station recently just finished renovations that were needed, both inside and out, to modernize it with unisex bathroom facilities and separate bedrooms instead of the standard bunk set-up.

Past difficulties, new solutions

With COVID-19 behind us, Ingersoll recalled when lockdowns were first starting.

“When the pandemic started, there wasn’t really a playbook [for us],” Ingersoll said. “There was a big learning curve early on, and it became the new norm. I was on daily phone calls with New York State and the health department.”

And with COVID spreading to so many in the community, it was inevitable that the firefighters themselves started getting infected or showing symptoms. And having a firefighter out for two weeks to quarantine means plenty of overtime for the firefighters still on duty.

Ingersoll estimates that around 80% of the Utica Fire Department came into contact with or caught COVID at one point or another during the pandemic.

The chief said the fire department recently received the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grants, or SAFER, to help with overtime woes.

Ingersoll explained that this federal grant allows the department to hire firefighters and fully fund their wages for three years.

“We hired eight additional firefighters and now have our maximum of 132 firefighters,” Ingersoll said. “And having those firefighters in our complement has really made a big difference. Our people are dedicated, but when you’re on call for 24 hours… We have members with family needs, with young kids.”

“The SAFER grant has reduced the mandatory overtime while remaining fully staffed, which really increases the quality of life for our firefighters,” he added.

But Ingersoll said the biggest problem facing not just the Utica Fire Department but all fire departments is recruitment.

According to Ingersoll, the Utica Fire Department’s calls have increased significantly, by around 24%, over the last four years.

“And everything outside the city mimics that,” he said. “There’s an increased need. And we’ve noticed [a decrease] in our recruitment efforts. When I took the entry exam in 2000, there were probably 400 people who took the exam. But now? We’re lucky if we get 100.”

And if that’s for a paid position, volunteer departments must be feeling it worse.

Ingersoll said he understood that people have only so much time to give, and it can be hard to ask them to commit to the training and the work.

But at the end of the day, a lack of firefighters hurts a community.

So, Ingersoll encouraged people who may be considering volunteering or applying for jobs with their local fire department to do so.

“If you want to do something for your community that has a huge impact, I’d say take a good look at being a firefighter,” he said. “There are some great things about this job that you can’t replicate in other jobs. And really, it’s not so much a job, it’s a passion, impacting people’s lives for the better.”

This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Utica Fire Chief Ingersoll discusses department's history, challenges