As the pandemic drags on, people have been easing back into the normal swing of things and increasingly finding themselves in dangerous situations.
Greater Sudbury Fire Services members responded to 5,080 calls last year, which was a 28-per-cent jump from the 3,984 calls they responded to in 2020.
Although this increase appears particularly alarming at face value, it’s worth noting that calls to the fire department were down significantly in 2020, due in large part to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The fire department saw their overall call volume drop by 17.4 per cent in 2020, with members responding to 4,676 calls in 2019 and only 3,984 in 2020.
Although last year’s increase is partially attributable to both a COVID-related course correction toward a new normal and an annual increase in call volume they’ve come to expect, Greater Sudbury Fire Services Deputy Chief Jesse Oshell said it’s not all status quo.
“We did have a major increase in medical assistance calls in 2021, and those are calls that our partners in paramedic services request our assistance for,” he said, adding that at least part of this 137-per-cent increase had to do with responding to more opioid-related incidents.
Medical assist calls totalled 955 in 2019, dropped to 681 in 2020 and hit 1,615 in 2021.
Fire-related calls were up seven per cent last year compared to 2020, totalling 337 calls for service, vehicle collisions were up nine per cent at 542 and open air burning response calls were down 13 per cent at 370 calls.
Much of this, Oshell said, can be attributable to COVID-related impacts.
Working from home has become a fact of life for many people, and he said an increase in the number of cooking-related fires in recent months is likely a side effect of this change.
“People are home a lot more than they were before, working from home, so you’re at home a lot more, potentially distracted a lot more,” he said, adding that between working, online learning and preparing meals in between, a lot of factors are converging to create fire dangers at home.
They’re advocating that people not only keep an eye on their stove when it’s in use, but also to purchase fire extinguishers for their kitchens.
There were 288 fire-related calls in 2019 and 314 in 2020. The total loss estimate related to the 337 fires responded to in 2021 was almost $20 million, the 2020 loss estimate was $13 million and approximately $11.7 million was lost in 2019.
The increase in motor vehicle collision calls is a partial return to normal as more people hit the roads, although the last pre-pandemic year of 2019 saw even more responded to, at 689.
Open air burning calls peaked at 426 calls in 2020 from the previous year’s 207, and Oshell said it’s likely due to people being stuck at home, looking for something to do and lighting outdoor fires in contravention of the city’s Open Air Burning Bylaw.
Medical-related calls are currently being analyzed to identify any notable trends, Greater Sudbury Paramedic Service Deputy Chief Paul Kadwell told Sudbury.com, adding that cardiac-related calls are one key area being looked at. Last year saw paramedics respond to a total of 1,418 cardiac-related calls, which was an increase of 15.6 per cent compared to 2020.
Like some other call categories, he said this might be attributable to the area’s aging population.
“We do have an aging population like everyone else, so there’s more of a demand on the health-care system and on paramdemic services,” Kadwell said.
There were 30,656 EMS calls for service year to date as of Dec. 15, 2021, according to Kadwell’s latest report to the city’s emergency services committee. This is a 13.2 per cent increase compared to the same timeframe in 2020. A total of 27,729 EMS calls for service were responded to in 2019 and 28,402 took place in 2020.
Although there was a decrease in call volume early in the pandemic as people stayed home and avoided certain situations where they could get sick or injured, Kadwell said that things slowly returned to normal levels by the time the first year of the pandemic came to a close.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
