SIDNEY – As part of the periodic interviews the Sidney Daily News conducts with the Sidney Fire Department, we will be interviewing each member of the fire department, starting with its most senior member, Assistant Fire Chief Jason Truesdale.
Truesdale has worked for Sidney Fire for 27 years and is a second-generation firefighter. His dad was a captain for Shawnee Township in Lima and his brother is currently the chief for Shawnee. His uncle and a second cousin were also captains for Lima. Before Sidney, Truesdale volunteered for Shawnee for four years.
“The fire service has always been part of my family. I was born and raised in fire service,” Truesdale said. “I became full-time here in ’97. Stan Crosley was the chief and he hired me, and when he hired me, he asked me, ‘can you give me five years?’ and I was like ‘oh yeah, I’m here, I’m committed here,’ and the reason for that was when I was up in Lima, I was known as John’s son, or Todd’s brother; they didn’t know my name, and some of the guys that were in fire service didn’t even know dad had a younger son because my brother’s 10 years older than me. So I wanted to make my own name and I wanted to work somewhere where I wasn’t under dad’s umbrella or my brother’s umbrella.
“I got to fight fires with my brother and my dad, which was cool,” Truesdale said of his volunteer work at Shawnee. “I got a picture up in my locker. Once I got hired here, that’s the very first thing I did, they showed me my locker, I posted a picture of my dad and my brother and me at our last fire that we got to fight together. It was just a closure of ‘this was me, but this is where I’m going.’”
Truesdale has been an assistant chief for almost two years. Although he would prefer being in the action over behind a desk, he recognized that the crew needed an experienced leader, and it takes longer for him to recover from events as an older crew member.
“I love the family. I love the team. We have a really good team here. We have a lot of knowledgeable, smart individuals that bring something to the table, and when you put that mix of people together, especially on an emergency scene, it’s impressive to see,” Truesdale said when asked what he likes most about the job. “I love helping the community. I love helping the people. When you get called to somebody’s worst day and they’re looking for you for help and guidance, it’s a great feeling to be there to provide that service for them.”
Truesdale described a memorable moment in his career while on the job on Father’s Day 2015. An individual was stuck in the river in high flood conditions clinging to a tree. Truesdale was driving the first rescue boat when the motor failed with the victim and another firefighter in it and they were swept downstream and got stuck in a tree. The passengers had to get out of the boat and cross a rope to get to shore. A rescue that was supposed to take about 30 minutes resulted in about three and a half hours and quickly became life-threatening.
He also mentioned the changes he’s seen in the fire service over his career.
“The fire service is changing. It’s changing to where it’s not somebody that’s committed to one department. What I’m seeing now is people are what I think is chasing the money.
“Back in the day when we were hired in here we had to live within the county, and now you can live in adjacent counties, so that puts a damper on our service that we try to provide because when we call for a box alarm, we call for off duty, we have guys coming from different counties and it takes a while for them to get here.
“We try to augment our help with volunteers, and the volunteers are doing great around here, but in the realm of the state, the volunteers are diminishing,” Truesdale said.
In his personal life, Truesdale has been married for 23 years and has three children.
The Sidney Daily News conducts a periodic interview to update readers with news from the Sidney Fire and Emergency Services Department, 222 W. Poplar St., Sidney.
