YFD stats show consistency

By Joe Gorman | February 8, 2016 at 12:05a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Though fire department statistics for 2015 show a slight increase in calls from 2014, fire Chief John O’Neill said the department’s response to calls has been consistent the last five years.

The department answered 5,521 calls in 2015, up from 5,252 calls in 2014.

The number of vacant and occupied structure fires also increased, as 2015 saw 195 vacant structure fires and 330 occupied structure fires, up from 167 and 291, respectively, in 2014.

O’Neill said there is not much to explain the increase. He said factors beyond his control, such as weather, typically impact the department’s operations.

“I can’t attribute it [statistics] to anything in particular,” O’Neill said.

Since 2011, the department has answered more than 5,000 calls per year, with a high of 5,847 in 2012. Calls in 2015 reversed a two-year trend of decreases.

O’Neill said he was glad firefighter-related injuries decreased from a high of 68 in 2013 to 39 last year. There were 40 firefighter-related injuries in 2014.

O’Neill said battalion chiefs and other supervisors in charge at fire scenes look for conditions that may result in injuries so they can keep firefighters out of danger.

For the first part of 2016, O’Neill said crews are examining the department’s fleet of reserve trucks and making sure the vehicles and equipment are ready if they are needed at a large fire or to staff a station in case of an emergency where all trucks on duty are tied up.

O’Neill also said he is working on hiring three new firefighters to get the department’s numbers up to 130 firefighters. O’Neill said hiring the three will save thousands of dollars in overtime.

Minimum staffing requires at least three firefighters per truck, and being short three firefighters means someone needs to work over to keep staffing levels for the day at the minimum, O’Neill said. Fire-department overtime is especially costly because when someone works an extra shift, that shift is 24 hours long.

“That causes overtime just to keep the trucks running,” the chief said.

O’Neill said the goal is to keep fire department overtimeunder $80,000 for this year. He said the department can often reach that goal if it has 130 firefighters.