The Quesnel Volunteer Fire Department responded to the highest number of calls ever recorded in 2024 !
Fire Chief Ron Richert, speaking at Tuesday (Jan 14) night’s City Council meeting, said they responded to 825 calls this past year, up from 745 in 2023.
He also went over some of the reasons for the large increase.
“The most increases were obviously the burning complaints, illegal campfires, we went from 99 in 2023 to 153 in 2024. Dumpster fires, we had a rash of dumpster fires last year. We went from 12 to 21. Commercial fire alarms and residential fire alarms, we actually saw a huge increase in those. Residential went from 60 to 91. Assist calls, public assist calls, those went up a bit there.”
Richert noted however, that there were a few decreases as well.
“Minor motor vehicle accidents decreased and we had a huge decrease in serious motor vehicle accidents, which is good to see, our residential and outbuilding structure fires, we had a huge decrease in those. (17 to 8) Vehicle fires a bit of an increase.”
Pedestrian motor vehicle accidents were up from just 2 to 9, vehicle fires went from 7 up to 13, there were more commercial/industrial structure fires although the numbers are small as it went from 2 to 5, and small wildland fires were up a fair bit, from 14 to 23 last year.
Councillor Mitch Vik noted that calls were up by 86 percent last year compared to 2020.
The Quesnel Fire Department currently has four career staff and 31 dedicated volunteer firefighters.
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