Blackfalds Fire Department continues to respond to more calls each year.

In the last 3-4 years, call volumes have increased 5-15% each year, 2017 numbers are up 15% from 2016, with members responding to 174 calls.

Fire Chief Robert Côté says it definitely makes the job more demanding for their 31 volunteers.

“Being a volunteer department it affects the membership in the sense that with today’s economy it’s hard for them to get away from their full time jobs.  Their employers losing their staff to cover for these incidents so it’s getting tougher and tougher to have the volunteers respond to the calls, and our members here are on call 24-7”.

The top 3 types of calls volunteers responded to were alarms calls, motor vehicle collisions and medical response calls.

Côté says 31% of their total call volume was alarm responses.

“Most of them are either cooking incidents where people are burning their dinners, forgetting about them or they are not maintaining their equipment so the detectors aren’t being dusted, blown out, batteries replaced, setting off the systems".

Despite a Security Alarm System Bylaw put in place by the Town which includes fines for repeat alarm calls that are non-emergencies, Côté says there's been no reduction in call volumes.

The Fire Department will be working this year to further educate residents about proper maintenance and use of alarm systems.