James Cannell Jr. retired from the Columbus Division of Fire after 33 years of service. He served as both assistant fire chief and acting fire chief before retirement, participating in “every aspect of fire, rescue and EMS operations,” according to a press release. (Photo courtesy of the Columbus Division of Fire)
Meet the new Miami Township fire chief, James Cannell Jr.
- Published: July 8, 2025
The regular meeting of the Miami Township Trustees on June 16 brought some big news: the Township has a new fire chief.
James R. Cannell Jr., a seasoned firefighter with more than three decades of experience at the Columbus Division of Fire, began Monday, June 30, what is planned to be a year-long tenure at the helm of Miami Township Fire-Rescue.
Cannell follows the late Fire Chief Dennis Powell, who served as assistant fire chief from 2004 to 2023, when he was promoted; Powell died in April this year, and Nathaniel Ayers has served as interim chief since January.
As the News previously reported, Cannell was hired after a search and interviews conducted by the trustees, and as Cannell said in an interview with the News last week, he aims to spend his time leading MTFR, in part, in finding his replacement.
“This is only going to be, potentially, a year-long process,” Cannell said. “We really have to start looking for the next fire chief.”
Cannell’s experience in fire service roles runs the gamut: He joined the Columbus Division of Fire in 1989, rising through the ranks to serve as deputy chief from 2011–-2016 and assistant fire chief until 2019.
According to a press release from Miami Township, Cannell has “served in every operational rank and participated in every aspect of fire, rescue and EMS operations” through the years. That includes his work since 2001 as paid-on-call captain with the Porter-Kingston Fire District in his home community of Delaware County, serving on Ohio Task Force 1 and in deployment as a rescue squad member to the World Trade Center following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Notably, Cannell said, much of his past work has been dedicated to training other firefighters in operations and professional development; he is currently the training officer for Porter-Kingston and was the fire and EMS training director for the Delaware Area Career Center from 2001 to 2007.
In the statement provided to the News, the Township Trustees noted that this pedigree was part of the reason Cannell was hired, jointly stating they were “confident that he will effectively lead and support the development of [MTFR’s] firefighters and improve the administrative processes of the department.”
Cannell agreed: “I’m here to be a mentor, and help develop that next generation,” he said.
MTFR currently operates with a mix of part-time and full-time personnel, with some volunteers on the roster. As the News has reported in the past, MTFR was established in 1907 as an all-volunteer department, but has followed statewide trends in transitioning away from that model over the last few decades, aiming toward a full staff of career professionals.
Cannell said he’s familiar with similar transitions from his work in Delaware County, which he said operated much like a volunteer department for years, with one part-time person in the station and all others “running from home” when there was a call. In his time there, Porter-Kingston has transitioned to three full-time staff, including a fire chief, though the small department, he added, still has staff responding to calls from home after 4 p.m. and on weekends.
“You don’t transition [away from the volunteer model] without a lot of challenges,” he said. “[Porter-Kingston] is only a year or two away from going full-time, just like Miami Township, so I’ve been going through a similar process for about the last 20 years.
He added that modern training standards, licensing requirements and increased call volumes have made it harder for departments to rely on volunteers alone. He sees his appointment, he said, as part of the department’s necessary shift toward a more sustainable, professional model.
“Back in the day, it was a 36-hour class and you were a firefighter,” Cannell said. “Now it’s a big time commitment, and a lot of people have two jobs, and their family life is more demanding. It’s just different times.”
Also on his list of goals is developing the department’s leadership from within. He said his first step will be to meet with current officers and ask where they see themselves in five years — and whether they’re ready to grow into command roles.
“Finding quality people from within who are willing to step up — that’s always the goal,” he said. “I’m not looking outside. The leaders we have now are the ones I want to work with and support.”
Though he’s enjoyed a long and storied career, Cannell said his decades of service haven’t come without complications. In 2019, he stepped down from his role as assistant chief in Columbus following a city investigation into a deputy chief’s use of a staffing and payroll policy that allowed employees to log hours outside of their typical duties; that deputy chief, who reported to Cannell, was alleged by the investigation to have logged hours for work he did not complete. In a public statement, the accused deputy chief said he believed the allegations were intended as a “political hit on [his] character” prompted by his service as president of the Columbus Fire Fighters Union Local 67, which sometimes put him “at odds with City Hall.” The deputy chief ultimately pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of dereliction of duty and retired; the deputy chief’s record was later expunged.
For his part, Cannell was not formally charged with any wrongdoing, but as an acting superior, he was named in a city report that criticized his oversight of the staffing and payroll policy and recommended his termination. Looking back, Cannell said the policy itself was misunderstood, as it was intended to support staff who were taking on more work.
“A lot of [what was alleged] was unfounded,” he said. “It was a politically charged time. We reorganized the operations bureau and gave deputy chiefs more duties that required them to come in on their off days, with the understanding they’d be compensated with comp time. That’s where it came from.”
Cannell was not fired, but returned to shift work for the Columbus Division of Fire and enjoyed the remainder of his career there before retiring in 2022. All in all, he said, the controversy served as a learning experience.
“Would I do some things differently now? Sure,” he said. “But I don’t hide from it.”
With that chapter of his career closed, and looking ahead, Cannell said he continues to live in Delaware County with his wife, Lesley, near their three adult children and six grandchildren. He expects a long commute to Yellow Springs during the week, but added that he’s committed to being present and on call, even if it means overnights at the firehouse or weekend trips back and forth.
“That’s what it takes to be a successful fire chief,” he said.
A public reception to welcome Chief Cannell to the community, planned by the Miami Township Trustees, is forthcoming and will be announced in the News when details are finalized.
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