8984-R2_NewGloucester_2023-2024_AnnualReport_Web

ANNUAL REPORT Fire & Rescue Department

The Fire Rescue Department is a unique part of our community. Many people recognize the red trucks and loud sirens and say to themselves, “Somebody is having a bad day.” Nobody expects it to be them. Fire Res cue is a service which on any given day can provide critical services to anyone. Fiscal Year 24 ended up being a busy one for the men and wom en of the New Gloucester Fire Rescue, full of challenging calls and per sonal growth for many of our members. Incident Statistics For FY 24, the New Gloucester Fire Rescue had a steady year of calls, training, and public outreach. From July 2023-June 2024, the Department responded to 755 calls for service. While we normally respond to an aver age of 640 calls annually, this period reflected an uptick in service for us. We responded to 449 calls being medical in nature. Of these 449 calls, 77 were motor vehicle accidents. For fire related calls, we responded to 306 calls, which is an increase of about 100 over the average of our last five years. One contributing factor was severe weather, which included storm events in December, March, and April. While these events produced a sig nificant number of storm related emergencies, they were still emergencies that drew a response from the Department. Weather related emergencies will be something to keep an eye on going forward. For EMS related calls, we responded to 449 medical calls and 77 motor vehicle accidents. Of these calls, 261 patients were transported by our am bulance to area hospitals. New Gloucester Fire Rescue currently has one ambulance; thus, we rely on mutual aid at times. We had 28 mutual aid am bulance responses to cover medical calls in New Gloucester when our am bulance was already committed on another call, or down for maintenance. For Fire related calls, we responded to 306 emergencies. Our members responded to 21 significant fire calls which required extended periods of work. These fires were a mix of calls within our community and in our sur rounding communities. Our members preserved an estimated $1,871,059 worth of property from fire damage in FY 24.

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