Carlisle Fire Company provided Milford City Council with their update for August at a recent meeting. The company provides council with fire call information monthly.
“Our year-to-date total of alarms is 575 as of the end of August,” Fire Chief Brennan Fountain said. “As far as EMS, we were at 501 in terms of the total. Total transports to medical facilities were 367 transports, with interfacility transports at 115.”
Fountain reported that 47 percent of the calls had a response time of under one minute and 78 percent in under two minutes. He also stated that the number of critical traumas in August were higher than previous months.
“We had 11 that required aviation transports,” Fountain said. “We’ve been landing the helicopter here in Milford more often to get patients to primary trauma centers. WE had seven cardiac arrests and four were revived in the field. Our EMT’s definitely need to be celebrated for their efforts.”
The EMS quarters at the main fire station is underway along with projects that will make the administration office more ADA compliant. The company anticipates that project to be completed by the end of September.
“We were able to widen the roadway for our substation to allow apparatus to respond out Cedar Beach Road,” Fountain said. “We’re looking for some more expansion out there.”The fire company will hold an open house on Saturday, October 31 from 11 AM to 3 PM with a Trunk or Treat event that evening from 6 to 8 PM.
“I want to give credit to DMI for the First Friday events,” Fountain said. “We have been able to provide some applications at those events which have been well attended. I just want to give credit where credit is due. I think they are doing a great job bringing interest to downtown Milford.”
Fountain then brought up the property tax incentive for firefighters.
“I’m looking at that incentive and the call volume requirement for our members as it is 30 percent that falls within the 12-month calendar year,” Fountain said. “I wondered if we could adjust that and make it 25 percent instead of 30 percent.”
Councilman Jason James interrupted Fountain and explained that if there was to be a discussion about funding, he would have to recuse himself. Fountain and James are related. At a recent ethics workshop, James asked if he should recuse himself from matters related to funding the department due to the relationship and was told in the interest of transparency, he should.
“I just wanted to say that I am not requesting funding, I’m just requesting a change to the requirements,” Fountain said. “I just want to take a second to explain why. Not only do we respond to emergencies, but I’m asking my staff to do more than that. This weekend, we have a full day at the Riverwalk Festival. I’m asking them to be part of that the entire day and to provide EMS coverage to all the events in the city. These are volunteers, so I’m asking them to do community events, not just fire company responses, so I think it’s fair to consider lowering the number of emergencies that’s required because I’m also looking for them to do other things outside of emergency responses, including training and community involvement.”
City Manager Chris Coleman told Fountain he would meet with him to discuss adjustments to the property tax incentives before bringing it back to council.
