SPOKANE, Wash. — The Spokane Valley Fire Department (SVFD) responded to a record number of calls in January 2024.
Valley Fire Chief Frank Soto revealed the department responded to more than 2,100 calls just last month alone. More than 1,700 of those calls were EMS related, followed by 170 building alarms and 95 car accidents.
Below is a breakdown of how many calls for service were received for each category:
- Emergency Medical Service (Advanced Life Support) - 984 calls (45%)
- Emergency Medical Service (Basic Life Support) - 754 calls (34%)
- Building alarms- 179 calls (8%)
- Motor vehicle accidents - 95 calls (4%)
- Service calls - 51 calls (2%)
- Fire calls - 49 calls (2%)
- Counseling and Recovery Services - 40 calls (2%)
- Hazardous materials - 20 calls (1%)
- Vehicle fires - 8 calls (0.4%)
- Commercial fires - 5 calls (0.2%)
- Auto v. pedestrian - 4 calls (0.2%)
- Technical rescue - 3 calls (0.1%)
- Transport only - 2 calls (0.1%)
- Canceled call - 2 calls (0.1%)
- Total calls - 2,196 calls
Chief Soto said last month's cold snap was partially to blame for the influx of calls. He also attributed the cold weather and icy conditions to an increase in car accidents.
"A lot of busted pipes, we had an increase of those calls by 132%," Soto said. "It's actually the second busiest call behind our EMS calls."
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