Sullivan Fire District Alarms Top 1,000 In 2019

2019 will go down as a extremely busy year for the Sullivan Fire Protection District as firefighters logged some 1,000 alarms compared to 940 in 2018 and 984 in 2017.

In numbers compiled by Sullivan Fire District Chief Eric Lewis, the department saw more than half of their alarms being rescue/assist emergency services calls with 524, of which 228 where medical assist and 159 vehicle accidents. In 2018 there were 396 rescue/assist emergency services with 254 medical assist and 112 vehicle accidents.

When reviewing fire alarms for 2019, the overall number of fires was down from 126 in 2018 to 111 in 2019.

However, in the overall fire alarms, 33 were structure fires compared to 22 in 2018. Brush fires saw a decrease from 45 in 2018 to 25 in 2019 and vehicle fires increased from 9 in 2018 to 27 in 2019.

Overall, the district responded to 53 hazardous conditions that includes natural gas leaks, power lines down, flammable liquids and electrical issues which compares to 61 in 2018.

“There are factors in which some of these numbers increased such as vehicle accidents that can be impacted by weather with the same being said for structure fires,” said Chief Lewis. “This was another very busy year for the district.”

Some of the other interesting statistics compiled by the district included the largest number of alarms in any given month was the months of July and October that tied with 98 each; most alarms occur around 2 p.m. in 2019 with 116; the most popular day of the week for alarms in 2019 was Fridays with 171 with the slowest day for alarms in 2019, Tuesdays with 116.

Firefighters had their most alarms in one day on August 30, with 13, followed by December 15, a winter weather day with 10.

The district responded to 181 good intent alarms followed by 59 service calls and 64 false alarms or false calls.