Southington FD Announces New Hires Within Its Ranks

SOUTHINGTON, CT — With staffing paid and/or volunteer fire departments always a challenge for municipalities, the Southington Fire Department this week has some good news.

The SFD officially welcomed three new members to the paid/volunteer hybrid fire department in the form of new firefighter/EMT recruits Andrew Gerrard, Corey Christians, and Chad Martowski.

The trio fills three key vacancies caused by recent SFD retirements and future ones.

They are currently undergoing training at the Connecticut Fire Academy in Windsor Locks.

In addition, the Southington FD announced that Lt. Kevin Salmeri has a new leadership role as personnel supervisor at Station 3.

Firefighter staffing in Southington has been a hot-button issue in recent weeks, with the town's firefighters union pressuring the Southington Fire Commission to hire more firefighters as it formulates a new budget for the next fiscal year.

Their push at the end of last year came amid worries the commission was planning to cut costs by cutting one of the department's stations.

That ended up not happening and, recently, the Southington Town Council announced it was seeking federal funds to be able to hire more firefighters to fill out ranks.

From Jan. 21: 'Southington Seeks Federal Funds To Address Firefighter Staff Problem'

From Jan. 10: 'No Firefighter Cuts, No Station Closures: Southington FD Board'

From Dec. 30, 2024: 'Southington Firefighters Fear Proposed Cuts Could Hurt Fire Coverage'