MONTICELLO, NY — Last year, the Monticello Fire Department (MFD) celebrated its 150th year of service. It was originally housed on Pleasant Street but moved to its present location on Richardson Avenue in 2006, according to Jon Wells, the fire department’s current chief.

The MFD district covers the Village of Monticello plus the Town of Thompson, but its members respond to requests from neighboring fire departments when they are needed.

Chief Wells said that his great-grandfather had been a chief in the MFD in the early 1900s, and when, during his boyhood, his grandmother gave him his great-grandfather’s badge, it ignited a spark in him. That same spark led to the Monticello native joining the same fire department in February 1990 at the age of 18.

Chief Wells began his career as a probationary volunteer firefighter, serving a two-year term, and learning to make his call volume and drill volume. “Once I came off probation, I spent some time as a firefighter,” he recalled. “In 1998, I became a driver, whose job is to get the apparatus out the door.” 

He held several other volunteer positions during those years and in 2025 became the fire chief. “All of our officers—there are six positions—in the fire department are volunteers,” he added.

The MFD also has a paid career staff of 10 firefighters. “Their schedule is 24 hours on, 72 hours off. The way we work, we have two guys on, 24 hours, seven days a week.” To accommodate them, the firehouse has two bedrooms for when the career staff is on call. There are 45 volunteers, who back up the staff.

Applicants for the career staff need to pass a civil service test, an interview, a background check, and an ability check before being hired. As an example of the ability check question, Chief Wells said, “If you look at a map, can you decipher it if you had to travel to a fire? How would you get there?”

Training is mandatory for both career staff and volunteers. Career staff, once hired, receive about 18 weeks of training at the New York State Fire Academy in Montour Falls in upstate New York. Volunteers go for their training either in White Lake in Sullivan County or in Orange County.

“The first class that we expect everybody to take as a firefighter is called basic exterior firefighter operations. You learn things like how to put your gear on and how to get in and out of the apparatus.”

Chief Wells remembered that two years ago, the MFD responded to 1,800 calls. Besides fire calls, “We run priority medical calls, like people having difficulty breathing, are in cardiac arrest, or have chest pain. That is about a third of our call volume.” 

While they don’t transport patients, they do start immediate care, assessing patients and starting CPR if patients are in cardiac arrest. “We’re trained every year for CPR. Our guys take an emergency medical technician class through Sullivan County Community College or Montour Falls.”

Chief Wells said that call volume is going up and costs are going up as well, but the number of volunteers is going down. While that is a problem, he is optimistic. “In all the years of being an officer here, I’ve realized that sometimes quality is better than quantity,” when it comes to volunteers. “You can do more with 20 good people than you can do with 40 who don’t know what they’re doing.”

Funding a career department is expensive as well, with costs such as wages, insurance, training and providing sleeping quarters. “So I think there’ll always be a volunteer department as long as people feel they want to help their community. But if that dries up, then there’s no choice except to go to a department with an all-career staff.” 

Another consideration is being able to respond to all the calls received by the MFD. A study it had done showed that Monticello technically should have two smaller buildings besides the existing one because Monticello is so big. “As long as you can get to the calls, then you’re OK with what you have. But if the area grows even more and you can’t accommodate everybody, then you have to look at other options.” 

Chief Wells’ two-year term will be up in 2027. What do you do after that? “You start all over again,” he said. “You start back at the bottom.”