On Monday, July 13, Carlisle Fire Company provided Milford City Council with their June report. Fire Chief Brennan Fountain gave the report.
“For the month of June, we had 67 fire incidents,” Fountain said. “Our top alarms were, of course, our automatic alarms and they stayed pretty consistent at 18. As we entered the summer months, we have had 18 motor vehicle collisions as well as 510 EMS.”
Fountain explained that the majority of transport were interfacility between healthcare institutions like Milford Wellness Village, Bayhealth and others. The average response time is still under two minutes for all EMS emergencies.
“There were five reported cardiac arrests and three documented saved,” Fountain said. “We like to highlight that as a big accomplishment for our EMS crew. “
The busiest time of the week in June was Tuesday, and busiest time of day was between 12 and 1 PM.
“With those numbers, and I have discussed this with the city manager, we are planning to run three crews throughout the summer months,” Fountain said. “We will be implementing one of our volunteers to help with staffing. We are finding that three crews are necessary between the hours of 7 AM and 4 PM.”
The EMS quarters have begun renovation at the main firehouse on Northwest Front Street.
“I have to give kudos to one of our probationary members, Michael Young III,” Fountain said. “He will be the first graduate of the Delaware State Fire Academy for the accelerated program, a six-month training course that is very intense, from 8 to 5, Monday through Friday for six weeks. He will earn his Firefighter I and II certifications which brings him out of the academy as a certified firefighter.”
According to Fountain, Young works for the State of Delaware, so he has been going to class during the day.
“I definitely want to highlight that accomplishment,” Fountain said. “I also want to highlight our biggest fundraiser which is our public crab feast. It will be coming back to Milford September 12 from 5 to 8 PM. If you enjoy crabs and fellowship, make your way down to our main station.”
Fountain explained that the company had been very fortunate in getting a response out of the station within two minutes 80 percent of the time. The new substation off Rehoboth Boulevard has helped reduce response times, especially in the southeastern part of the city where response times were over three minutes.
“Over the holiday weekend, some of our members were unable to get to the main station due to traffic, but they could respond to the substation,” Fountain said.
Councilman Danny Perez asked, with the city growing, how much of an increase the company was seeing compared to last year.
“If I had to guess, we are between 10 and 15 percent,” Fountain said. “We responded to over 700 calls last year and at the pace we are going, I expect to be over 1,000 by the end of the year.”
Councilman Dan Marabello asked how much equipment was at the substation as well as where the company acquired the equipment.
“All of the equipment came from the main station,” Fountain said. “We have one engine that supplies 1,000 gallons of water. We have our facility piece that is over there with 250 gallons of water and we have a rescue marine boat as well.”
After the presentation, Fountain commented that he could talk about the company all night, but he “had to go coach softball.”
