Allen County has a possible new direction for its fire protection services.

County council members and commissioners met in a joint session today to discuss the result of a Purdue University Fort Wayne study on consolidating Allen's four fire districts into one county-wide fire department.

The study results call for hiring an executive chief, nearly doubling district staffing and increasing a coordination effort between the council, commissioners and district fire chiefs over the next five years.

The commissioners paid more than $45,000 in local income taxes for the study, which Purdue Fort Wayne's Engineering Division conducted from February to May to determine what that consolidation might look like.

The first step, the study says, is to hire an executive fire and emergency medical s

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