Las Vegas Fire Department responds to 100,000 calls in 2013

The Las Vegas Fire Department reached a historic milestone by having responded to 100,000 calls in one year by Dec. 28, according to a press release by the Department.

“It’s pretty significant that we had 100,000 runs in one year because its shows that we are busy,” said Tim Szymanski, Las Vegas Fire Department public education and information officer.

Szymanski said that by this time last year, the Department received 3,600 fewer calls and added that the increased number of calls will help the Department justify need when it applies for grants or needs new equipment.

“Numbers are going to go up each year because of growth,” Szymanski said. “One of the things that we learn from this is that the economy has an impact on the number of emergency responses we make.”

Szymanski said that the Las Vegas Fire Department saw call numbers fall in 2009 because of the economy.

“Construction stopped and there were no construction fires or accidents,” he said.

Szymanski said that the fewer number of visitors and the fact that people didn’t have money to pay for ambulance services also contributed to the lower number of calls.

“But now, most of the calls we get are emergency medical in nature,” Szymanski said. “The large number of calls this year is largely due to the increased number of visitors and because Las Vegas is a retirement community, so a lot of those people need medical emergency assistance.”

The number of calls is separate from those of Henderson Fire Department, North Las Vegas Fire Department, and Clark County Fire Department. Szymanski said that given that Las Vegas Fire Department operates the only public safety bomb squad in Southern Nevada, a hazardous materials team and a technical rescue team, the department operates all over Southern Nevada and the number of calls are accounted regardless of whether or not incidents took place in Las Vegas proper.