Elyria fire asks Council to add three lieutenants

The Elyria Fire Department is seeking a change to city ordinances to allow it to promote three additional firefighters to lieutenant. Fire Chief Joe Pronesti, who presented the proposal to City Council's Finance Committee on Monday, said that the department needed to have 12 lieutenants to properly staff the four fire engines it now operates on every shift. The department now has nine lieutenants, and city code actually only calls for seven, which Pronesti noted is less than half of the 15 the department had in the 1990s, when the department's call volume was much lower. The committee voted to send the proposal forward to Council as a whole for consideration at its next full meeting next Monday. Lieutenant is the rank immediately above the standard firefighter position, and one lieutenant is supposed to serve as the leader on each of the engine trucks the city runs. But, Pronesti said, the department added a fourth fire engine to primarily serve the city's southeast side — something it had not had since 2006, leading to a practice where firefighters "ride up," serving as a temporary leader for their company during a given 24-hour shift. "Because we don't have enough of what we would call a company officer or a boss for Engine 2, we have had to have firefighters do what we call ride up or act up in that role of the lieutenant," Pronesti said Tuesday. "It is meant to be a stopgap if someone calls in sick, goes on vacation or gets injured. It is like a battlefield promotion. It is not meant to be the standard." Pronesti told Council on Monday that this would make emergency scenes safer for both firefighters and residents by ensuring the chain of command is clear and lieutenants are fully prepared. "(Riding up) is not the best leadership principle," he said. "It's not the best for morale and in an emergency, you are kind of putting that guy in a tough spot to make decisions that he's not trained for." The Fire Department was lowered to three engines and seven lieutenants during Bill Grace's mayoral administration in the 2000s, Pronesti said. Under Grace, the department was reduced to fewer than 60 firefighters, and Pronesti said with that level of staffing the department could "get away with" only having seven lieutenants. The department went back to nine lieutenants under former Mayor Holly Brinda, Pronesti said, but the city's ordinance dictating the staffing was never updated, so an ordinance update is required regardless. As the Fire Department has grown in the years since, reaching a roster of 74 under current Mayor Kevin Brubaker, Pronesti said the need has arisen for more leadership positions. "We have gotten back to a staffing level that is acceptable and safe, thanks to this administration, and you need those bosses back now," he said. Additionally, the department set a record for call volume last year, responding to 6,457 calls for service in 2025. Of these calls, 149 were for fires, including 80 structure fires that caused damage, and 4,423 of them were priority emergency medal calls. LifeCare Ambulance takes all emergency medical calls in Elyria, and an Elyria fire engine is also dispatched to priority calls that involve a life-threatening emergency. Pronesti said he already accounted for the promotions in his 2026 budget, but he would not know the exact cost until the civil service testing for the positions is complete, as it will depend on the longevity of the firefighters selected for promotion. If Council approves the ordinance update to allow the department to have 12 lieutenants, Pronesti said that all three of the new lieutenants will be hired from within the department. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.