He said firefighters are taking more runs than first responders in bigger cities like Columbus because in larger municipalities, there is more manpower to spread the work around.
The numbers for 2019 are similar dating back to recent years — but are a significant jump from about 10 years ago when the department was responding to 13,000 to 14,000 calls annually.
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Smith said it’s very easy for a firefighter to become exhausted — juggling service calls, duties around the firehouse, training and studying for those in the apprentice program.
“There’s an old discussion 50 years ago that firefighters play checkers a lot and wait for everyone to come in,” Smith said. “Our firefighters are pretty much working from the moment they walk in at seven o’clock in the morning.”
New this year, Smith said the fire department has moved a firefighter from their company and put them in the fire marshal’s office to take over a majority of inspections around the community that normally firefighters would have to find time to do.
“He will take off about 60 percent of the inspections from the company level officers, so they can have more time for their runs and their training,” Smith said.
The majority of the 2019 runs were EMS calls — about 15,000.
There were also 658 false alarms, 1,333 other calls for assistance and 298 fire calls.
Previously, Springfield Fire Rescue Chief Brian Miller told Springfield City Commissioners during a meeting about the possibility of a Vacant Property Registry that nearly half of their fire calls are related to vacant properties.
The city’s registry went into effect Jan. 1, although registration does not need to be completed until May 1 if the guidelines apply.
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The fire department is optimistic that the registry could bear some of their burden if residents are compliant.
The registry provides a 24/7 point of contact for emergencies and city code problems and was adopted by the city in October.
It also gives first responders a better idea about structural hidden dangers that could be inside a home, so they can respond accordingly and safely.
On Wednesday evening, a vacant home on E. Rose Street caught fire, and firefighters spent nearly three hours putting the blaze out.
“If we know those things in advance, instead of finding them out and having to fall back and regroup and try again,” Smith said. “Maybe they wouldn’t have had to be out there for three hours or maybe we could’ve avoided the whole problem.”
What started the fire on Rose Street is still under investigation, but the home was bulldozed as a safety precaution.
18,021 — total incidents in 2019
15,732 — EMS calls in 2019
298 — fire calls in 2019
49.37 — average runs per day
The run volume in the City of Springfield is comparable to the cities of Hamilton and Middletown, according to the fire department.
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