On the other end of the public safety spectrum related to fire and rescue responses, the Monrovia Fire Department continues to see increased service level demands, with increased calls for service. Comparing actual calls for service in 2018 (4,364 total calls) to the levels in 2017 (4,270 total calls), there was a 2.2 percent increase, with 94 more response incidents.
This trend has continued for several years, and in fact, when compared against service request levels in 2014 (when there were 3,765 calls for service), they have seen a 15.9 percent increase in fire and rescue service demand, which equates to 599 additional service delivery requests annually. A chart outlining their total service demand volume during the past five years is included above for your reference.
The increase in calls for service during the past several years did result in a redeployment of the fire department staffing in 2018, as they updated their operating structure at Fire Station 102. The updated deployment strategy was made in response to the consistent service demand increase. Historically, the Fire Department traditionally responded to somewhere around 3,000 – 3,500 calls for service per year, and operations had always been designed to respond to that level of demand. However, in the past five years, they have seen a consistent increase in the need for their fire and rescue services.
Staff is currently analyzing all of the data collected from the past year in greater detail, and based on everything they’ve seen, they do anticipate that 2019 will continue the trend of seeing a higher level of calls for service. Furthermore, here at the City, they’re in the process of developing a more robust reporting process to share additional fire department operational data on a regular basis, and anticipate an initial presentation of that data in the next few weeks.
