Cincinnati Fire fully staffed going into winter as EMS shortages hit smaller departments

CINCINNATI —

As colder weather moves in and holiday events begin to pick up, the Cincinnati Fire Department says it is better staffed heading into winter than it has been in years.

Assistant Fire Chief Matthew Flagler told WLWT that Cincinnati Fire handles roughly 300 emergency runs every day, and the types of calls shift as temperatures drop. Advertisement

"Now we have an increase in building fires, we have an increase in medical responses around the cold weather. Certainly when snow gets here, we get a lot of auto crashes and slips, trips and falls," Flagler said.

Flagler says the city has invested heavily in EMS staffing. Over the last five years, Cincinnati has hired nearly 300 new firefighters, allowing the department to fill vacancies, add medic units and cut overtime spending b