Carlisle Fire Company provided an update to Milford City Council at their regular meeting Monday, March 2. The presentation was postponed in February due to weather.
“In January, the Carlisle Fire Company had a total of 77 fire emergencies and out of the 77, we had 50 within city limits and 27 outside of city limits,” Fire Chief Brennon Fountain said. “We had 43 in Sussex County and 34 in Kent County. Out of the fire responses, our top incident would have been our automatic fire alarms which tend to be a problem as we have a lot of businesses that have an issue with their alarm systems.”
Fountain explained that malfunctions occur throughout the month, leading to responses that are not necessary.
“As far as EMS data, Carlisle responded to 517 emergencies for EMS with 366 in the city and 151 outside of the city,” Fountain said. “Of those, 338 were in Sussex County and 179 in Kent County. The top responses in terms of incident were to our medical facilities, which would be our BLS transport to and from the hospital and then our inter-facility transports which would be nursing homes. There were a total of 108 in terms of transports.”
According to Fountain, the busiest day for EMS was Thursday and the busiest time of day was between 11 AM and Noon
“We do have our substation that is currently in the process of being finalized,” Fountain said. “We’re looking to be operational on or before the end of the month. So, we’re looking for some good things there. In terms of our EMS quarters at our main location, we’re looking to get that project up and running. We’ve also added a third traffic control vehicle to our fleet which will be assisting with traffic incidents, traffic control management for major highways and streets.”
Fountain stated that when fire police respond to incidents, they are becoming targets on the highway. He reminded those in attendance when they see a roadway shut down, it is for a reason.
“It is to keep our people safe,” Fountain said. “We’re having a lot of near misses and fire police are being injured.”
Fountain thanked the city for including the department in the storm preparation.
“It was very important to be able to partner with the city, to also look at the various work within the city were doing as far as electric and streets,” Fountain said. “In 72 hours, we did end up running 35 emergency fire calls, 63 EMS calls and we were staffed 72 hours with EMS with three crews. Of those, 52 hours were staffed by our two fire crew and 13 to 15 with our auxiliary who were assisting. They are the backbone of our organization, preparing meals as well.”
City Manager Chris Coleman thanked the chief for his comments.
“I know that the City Clerk acknowledged the police department and their assistance with our emergency preparedness,” Coleman said. “I would also like to echo that and thank the chief for her leadership and her support, but also, I would also like to thank the fire chief for his support. He’s also helping us as part of our emergency preparedness, so he and his department are helping us and continuing to work with us and our safety committee on that. I just want to be sure council is fully aware of that and thank the chief’s while they are both here.”
