The Alameda Fire Department (AFD) responded to 9,663 calls over five districts and administered 23,977 hours of training in 2023, according to the annual report released last week. This marks the department’s “busiest year to date,” Nick Luby, Alameda Fire Chief, wrote in the report.
The calls include 6,825 calls for Emergency Medical Service (EMS) incidents, 1,262 good intent (but false) calls, 641 false alarms, 201 fires, 132 hazardous condition incidents, 10 severe weather incidents, and four citizen complaints. Alameda’s Community Assessment Response & Engagement (CARE) Team responded to 1,255 of those incidents.
The report showed that the number of calls AFD responded to in 2023 increased 3.9% from 2022. Calls for services have consistently increased every year, exclusive of years 2020-2021 due to what is believed to be the result of COVID-19. AFD expects the trend of increasing calls to continue, based on housing developments and population increases.
“That’s a trend that you’ll see throughout the fire service and throughout most cities, said Kevin Tidwell, Alameda Fire Department Public Information Officer. “Their call volumes are increasing.” Tidwell believes the CARE team and an additional ambulance helped to handle the increasing demand.
“Over the last couple years, we have added a fourth ambulance for service as well as our Alameda CARE team the previous year,” Tidwell noted. “So, that has given us four additional personnel every day and that fourth ambulance has really been helpful in giving a good service to the community.”
AFD training division conducted 25.6% more training hours in 2023 than in 2022. According to the report, “Recruit academies are the largest undertaking by [the Training Division] and require dedicated resources to complete successfully.” Training continues to be provided for AFD staff, along with support for probationary members and certification of State Fire Training instructors.
AFD reported performing 2,400 reviews and inspections of various types in 2023. These included 23 fire cause investigations, 997 business inspections, 997 residential inspections, 160 new construction inspections, 151 reviews of solar system plans, and 71 reviews of special event plans.
The report also includes information about updated and remodeling of facilities, a new CARE team vehicle that arrived December 2023, and a new fireboat to be in service this spring. The installation of a firefighter memorial is ongoing and is expected to be completed by summer.
Vicky Nguyen is a contributing writer for the Alameda Post. Contact her via [email protected]. Her writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Vicky-Nguyen.
