Service calls to Fort Smith Fire Department set record in 2021

With the COVID-19 pandemic still in full swing, 2021 was another challenging year for the Fort Smith Fire Department, including 2021 being the busiest year for service calls to the department according to Deputy Fire Chief Boyd Waters.

The Fort Smith Board of Directors on May 11 received an annual report from the department.

“With the beginning of the New Year, with increased vaccination rates, we were hoping the pandemic would start to wind down and become endemic. However, beginning around the middle of June, a new variant of COVID-19 became a problem. The Delta variant, which started in India, began spreading around the world. This variant became an issue, as it seemed to spread quicker and made people sicker. As with the original Covid protocols, it was difficult to keep up with the changes that were being made. Some changes were almost daily as with the original COVID-19 protocols,” Waters noted in a memo in the report from Mark Talley, Division Chief of Operations. “As the Delta variant started to slow, in late summer or early fall, another new variant emerged. This became the Omicron variant. Once again, this variant was much more infectious, but showed signs of being less severe. Many of our personnel have contracted Covid, but fortunately, all have recovered.”

Along with fighting the fight against COVID, the department continued with regular fire department business.

At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, FSFD modified its dispatch protocols, Waters said. Instead of responding to all calls, the department had EMS screen the calls and determine if FSFD personnel were needed. This caused a drop in the department’s annual number of responses.

“We ended 2020 with 9,931 total calls. As we began understanding the Covid -19 virus better, we decided, toward the end of 2020, to return to our normal dispatch procedures. We were also able to get the protective equipment we needed, which had been in short supply. This led to the busiest year in the history of the Fort Smith Fire Department in 2021,” the report states.

There were a total of 14,904 calls for service in 2021 with the busiest months being May with 1,409 incidents, July with 1,374 incidents and August with 1,340. Of those 10,583 were rescue and medical calls. This accounted for 71% of the department’s responses, the report said. Of those, 9,588 were medical calls; 429 were vehicle accident injuries and 454 were vehicle accidents without injury.

There were 375 fire calls, which accounts for 2.51% of the calls, the report said. Fire calls included 127 building fires, 50 vehicle fires and 49 grass fires. Of the incidents involving fires, the total value of the property involved was $260.064 million and the total loss for those fires was $4.336 million. The total amount of property saved during the year was $255.729 million or 98.33% the report states.

The average overall response time was three minutes and 30 seconds.

Waters told the board that Fort Smith’s ISO rating was reviewed earlier this year and the update should be coming soon. He said while the city cannot get a better rating than the ISO 1 it has, the city has scored better so it will be more solidly in the ISO 1 category.