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Ohio fire and EMS departments add body armor

Officials said about a fourth of the departments have vests available to them and have been helpful on more than one occasion

HARRISON TOWNSHIP, Ohio — As violent calls increase for firefighters and paramedics, more departments are beginning to add body armor for an extra level of protection.

WHIO.com reported that three departments have begun equipping crews with body armor to protect responding units going into potentially dangerous scenes.

Battalion Chief Sean McNeil, with the Harrison Township (Ohio) Fire Department, said about a fourth of the departments have vests available to them and have been helpful on more than one occasion.

“We’ve actually had instances where we’ve been treating a patient and the actual shooter was in crowd near the medic unit,” McNeil said.

Full-time firefighters in Harrison Township are permitted to use uniform allowance to buy body armor, but are typically only used in high-risk situations like shootings or stabbings, according to the report.

Another fire district said they’ve been proactive with firefighter safety by purchasing vests in 2013 for ever paramedic unit and first responding command vehicle.

McNeil said performance isn’t affected by the body armor.

“It doesn’t really weigh that much, it doesn’t really get in the way even if I am performing EMS skills,” he said.

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