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02/07/2022 11:00 PMAfter 2021 saw the North Haven Fire Department (NHFD) respond to nearly 5,000 incidents, the department has already seen a trend toward even higher numbers in 2022. By the end of January, the NHFD had responded to 454 incidents, including a number of building fires with some resulting in civilian injuries and several households being displaced, compared to 331 in January 2021.
“The number of incidents continues to increase as compared to prior years,” said Fire Chief Paul Januszewski. “Incident call volume will need to be closely monitored moving forward to determine trends and future needs.
“Call volume cannot be attributed to any one reason,” he continued. “We’ve been forecasting for some time that call volume would continue to rise due to economic development, which appears to be the case at this time.”
In 2021, NHFD responded to 4,896 calls with 56 percent being emergency medical services (EMS), 37 percent being fire, and 7 percent being motor vehicle accidents. While EMS calls made up the highest percentage, the number was a “significant decrease” from past years.
Januszewski explained that in November 2020 there were two separate operational changes implemented. The first change was that the Town of North Haven secured a contract with Nelson Ambulance that stipulated response time and ensured ambulances were solely serving the town. The second change came with a new software used by 911 dispatchers that allowed the triaging of 911 calls to legally determine if fire department resources were needed to respond or if just an ambulance could be sent. Due to these changes, every month in 2021 there were between 80 and 100 incidents that required an ambulance with no support from the fire department.
“Traditionally, the fire department would’ve responded to 40 to 50 of those incidents each month, which means the fire department responded to 500 to 600 fewer EMS calls during 2021 alone,” said Januszewski. “This should’ve driven overall incident totals down, however, that wasn’t the case as all incidents types continue to increase due to a variety of factors.”
In addition to increased call volume, the NHFD continued to face challenges related to COVID. The NHFD staff often responds to calls for patients with suspected or confirmed cases of COVID leading to the need for additional precautions at every call. The NHFD has also been affected by exposure concerns and quarantining of staff.
“The steps taken by staff to ensure their own personal health and safety has certainly been taxing on daily operations,” said Januszewski. “The additional precautions needed in terms of PPE, adherence to policies, documentation, and a higher acuity of patients created a stressful environment throughout the year.”
While there were challenges in 2021, there were several highlights for the NHFD as well.
During 2021, the department also finalized the construction of the fire training tower behind the Northeast fire station on Washington Avenue late in 2021.
“Use of the facility will revolutionize training within the North Haven Fire Department allowing for overall improved fire ground operations, advanced rescue techniques, ladder rescues, hose deployment, and more,” said Januszewski. “The training tower is just starting to get utilized now as, with COVID, we’ve been reluctant to conduct a lot of training.”
The NHFD continued to work through a four-year phase-in of hiring to bring the Montowese Fire Station online 24-7. In 2021, additional personnel were hired to staff an engine at the Montowese station with both firefighters and a paramedic 75 percent of the time with enough personnel to operate an engine from that station on three out of four shifts. This year marks the final year of the hiring process and Januszewski is expecting the hiring and training of staff to be complete to fully staff the station by June 2022.
“The level of service provided to the taxpayers overall, particularly to the residents on the south side of town, will reduce incident response time to an area of town that would normally take 10 to 12 minutes to respond to from fire headquarters on Broadway,” said Januszewski.
Even with the newly hired staff, Januszewski stressed that the NHFD “relies heavily” on volunteer firefighters. Fire headquarters on Broadway and the Montowese station on Quinnipiac Avenue are staffed with career firefighters, but the Northeast Fire Station on Washington Avenue and the West Ridge Fire Station on Ridge Road are staffed solely by volunteers.
The number of volunteers has declined dramatically over the years. About 20 years ago, the NHFD had about 150 active volunteers. Now there are about 30. Januszewski noted that the trend is not specific to North Haven, but he encourages more people to get involved.
“Of recent concern, the number of individuals seeking to become a volunteer firefighter is a fraction of what it was only five years ago. This trend is consistent with the fact that overall there are less individuals interested in even becoming a career or paid firefighter,” said Januszewski. “The fire service within the State of Connecticut is closely watching this trend for a number of reasons. Consider becoming a volunteer firefighter.”
For information, visit northhavenfire.org or call the NHFD recruitment hotline at 203-239-5321 Ext 140.