2024 set a calls for service record for the Williams Lake Fire Department.
Assistant Fire Chief Cory Boyd said they responded to 504 compared to 460 in 2023 which was a ten percent increase.
Of the total, the most were for Alarm calls at 164.
“Fire alarms are important pieces in buildings but unfortunately there are a fair amount of false alarms whether it’s due to cooking or an accidental activation from dust or a pull station being pulled.”
The second highest was for fire complaints.
“They can be as simple as somebody that’s burning when they are not suppose to during the summer or maybe not in a proper fire pit. Lots of those calls are almost like admin calls where a Duty Officer goes there and most likely does education more than anything on when they are allowed to have fires or the proper way to do it. We get quite a few calls during the year where somebody thinks that they may see a fire so lots of times as a Duty Officer we’ll go and investigate and make sure there isn’t one,” Boyd said.
Last year the Williams Lake Fire Department also responded to:
79 Rescue Response (mvi/lines down)
56 Wildland fires
16 Vehicle fires
Structural and Dumpster fires 13 of each
And 9 Hazmat (odor & spills/CO Alarms)
The Quesnel Volunteer Fire Department also had an increase in calls for service: 825 last year compared to 745 in 2023.
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