Fire and rescue calls are up 30 percent in the first six months of the year, putting Wellington Fire Department on pace to its busiest year ever.
Chief Gary Green attributed the increase in calls to the growing population and the growing number of people traveling through the area.
Of the 375 responses as of July 23, 73 percent were for rescue and emergency medical responses including vehicle accidents, and 19 percent were categorized as service/public assistance, false alarms and good-intent responses. Good-intent calls are non-emergencies, during which assistance is rendered for such things as repairing a smoke detector or rescuing a cat from a tree. The remaining 8 percent of responses were for fire or other hazardous conditions.
The department currently operates two fire stations, one in Wellington and one in Waverly, with four full-time paid firefighters, seven part-time paid firefighters, 36 volunteer firefighters, two full-time paid administrative staff and one full-time paid fire chief.
A third fire station is planned for the northern part of the department’s response area in order to serve community growth and to help reduce emergency-response times.
“We’re continuing to evaluate our staff capacity and working to organize our volunteer force so that we can continue to serve the community with timely and consistent responses when we are needed,” Green said.