January 1, 2009

Busiest year recorded for department

       For the third time in as many years, the department's call volume has increased over the previous year.  The White River Township Fire Department responded to 2,108 calls for help in 2008, which is a significantly large twenty percent (20%)  increase over 2007, and now ranks as the busiest year on record for the agency.  The year easily edged out 2007, which previously held the record of the busiest year at 1,758 calls.

         The fire department also tracks calls for its ambulance, which is provided and managed by Rural/Metro Ambulance Service.  The ambulance is housed at Station 52 on Meridian Parke Lane and responds to calls within the White River Fire Protection District.  Additionally, the ambulance also responds to calls outside the district to assist other fire departments.  These additional out-of-district calls accounted for an additional 1,143 calls for a grand total of 3,251 total incidents reported.

         The busiest day of 2008 occurred back in the late spring on June 7th where the department responded to forty-seven incidents.  Many of the incidents that day were in response to record flooding that struck the area following heavy rains on already saturated soils.

        The final call tally for 2008 within the fire district was 2,108 calls, of which 853 were fire-related responses and the rest, or 1,255 were medical-related.  The following is a detailed breakdown of the various call types as reported to the National Fire Incident Reporting System:
 

		Call Type	2007	2008
		Fires:	146	155
		Explosions:	5	5
		EMS:	1,052	1,255
		HAZ-MAT:	69	95
		Service Calls:	81	82
		Good Intent:	264	346
		False Alarms:	138	152
		Weather:	3	18
		Total:	1,758	2,108

    

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