Chagrin Falls fire department has new name, seeks donations to modernize firehouse

Chagrin Falls Fire Marshal Jim Finley, left, and Fire Capt. John Catani, president of the Chagrin Falls Suburban Fire Department Corp., look forward to renovations they believe are needed at the newly renamed Chagrin Valley Fire Department’s firehouse at 21 W. Washington St. in Chagrin Falls.

CHAGRIN FALLS, Ohio -- The Chagrin Falls Suburban Volunteer Fire Department has changed its name to the Chagrin Valley Fire Department to more accurately reflect the broader area it serves.

The name change is effective Thursday (Feb. 13). The new name and a new logo will soon appear on the department’s vehicles and attire.

In addition, the department’s leadership and supporters are continuing a capital campaign to raise $1 million to modernize the firehouse at 21 W. Washington St. More than $350,000 has been raised so far.

The fire department has been providing fire and emergency medical services for six communities in the Chagrin Valley since 1897, according to Fire Chief Frank Zugan, a third-generation Chagrin Falls firefighter. 

Those communities are Bentleyville, Chagrin Falls, Chagrin Falls Township, Hunting Valley, Moreland Hills and South Russell.

But some residents in those municipalities outside of Chagrin Falls are not aware of the fire department that has been serving them, said Capt. John Catani, president of the Chagrin Falls Suburban Fire Department Corp.

“We think the new name is more accurate and more inclusive of our presence in the community,” said Zugan, who joined the fire department in 1987 and was named fire chief in 2008. “What better time to make the change than at the beginning of a new decade?”

The timing of the name change also ties in with the fundraising effort, said Fire Marshal Jim Finley.

“When people in those communities (outside Chagrin Falls) call 911, sometimes they’re surprised who shows up,” said Finley, who has served with the department since 1995 and has been fire marshal since 1999. “Some residents may be under the impression that they have their own village fire department.”

The department covers a 32-square-mile response area, serving a population of about 13,000 residents.

“When somebody from our department shows up on a call, we want them to know it’s the Chagrin Valley Fire Department that supports them,” said Catani, who has served with the department since 2004 and has been president of the fire department’s association for two years.

“So when we start asking for money to make those necessary changes (to the firehouse), people have to understand that we are their fire department," he said.

The renovations that are being planned for the firehouse are critical to the department’s mission, Catani said.

Updates in the three-part master plan include:

· Rebuilding access pathways to vehicles and apparatus bays to improve response time

· Adding a new gear storage area to protect first responders from carcinogen exposure

· Expanding living quarters to include the addition of designated locker room space and showers for the department’s female firefighters

“The three critical points for us are we’re looking to improve our speed and safety and trying to accommodate our growing number of female firefighters,” Catani said.

The department has three female firefighters and will soon have a fourth, Catani said.

“Fifty percent of our applicants in the last two years are turning out to be females,” Finley said. “It seems to be a trend.”

Improving response time is important, because “speed in our business is crucial,” Catani said.

“Fire doubles in size every 30 seconds,” he said. “People can only go without oxygen for six to eight minutes before there is permanent damage. With those statistics in mind, we’re trying to do everything we can to get out the door faster.”

The department is also trying to improve its floor plan, Catani said.

“We’re reconfiguring our station so we can get to the truck faster,” he said. “The station was built for more volunteer firefighters who came from home, and no one slept at the station then.”

Finley added: “Nobody was staffed here 24 hours a day (when the firehouse was built in the 1920s) like we are now. The layout is not conducive to getting out quickly.”

In terms of safety, the department seeks to improve its “living atmosphere,” Catani said.

“We live at the station when we work here, and we’re working with known carcinogens on call and in the firehouse,” he said.

“Our fire gear that hangs in our living quarters, we’ll house all that gear in a sealed room so we won’t be breathing in the fumes and touching our regular clothes to it. We’ll also try to separate the diesel fumes that the truck creates from our living quarters.”

When the firehouse was last renovated in 2002, no accommodations for women were taken into consideration, Catani said.

“We had a couple women (firefighters at that time), but it was overlooked,” he said.

The only previous renovations to the firehouse took place in 1986 and in the 1930s.

“Even if you only look back at the most recent improvements, we’re going on 18 years now since we last modernized the firehouse,” Zugan said. “It underscores our dire need to keep pace with the times and to make sure we’re there at a moment’s notice for our neighbors in their time of need.”

The department has a total of 50 firefighters on staff, including officers.

The campaign to raise $1 million to modernize the firehouse began in 2017, Zugan said.

A gala event to support the campaign, titled the Denim and Diamonds Gala, will be held June 13 at White North Stables, 3160 Chagrin River Road in Hunting Valley.

“We will do other events before that as well,” Catani said. “We’re hoping through private donations and residents hosting some dinners and parties in their homes (to raise the needed $650,000).”

Rob Falls, president and CEO of Falls, a Cleveland-based strategic marketing communications firm, said, “We’re forming host and honorary committees for the (June 13) event, so we’re asking people to come forward to help with that.”

Zugan said after the $1 million that is needed is raised, the fire department’s plan is to seek bids from contractors late this year and to begin construction next year.

For more information and to make reservations for the gala, visit chagrinvalleyfire.org.

Read more from the Chagrin Solon Sun.