Elkhart Fire Department swears in new firefighters

ELKHART, Ind. – The Elkhart Fire Department swore in seven new firefighters at the downtown Municipal Building on Monday, bumping up the number to 135 in total working for the department.

Another firefighter will also be hired in the coming weeks, but there are several retirements that will happen soon.

Elkhart Fire Chief Steve Kamp says that they are always looking for new firefighters.

“We used to at one time get 3, 4, 500 applications for this job,” Kamp said, “but now it’s really decreased quite a bit that we have a pool of 50 firefighters for certain amount of jobs.”

The newly sworn-in firefighters are set to begin work on Tuesday.

Spring of 2021 is when the department will begin the process for hiring new firefighters.