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Township fire, EMS call outs increase

ALPENA — The number of callouts from the Alpena Township Fire and EMS followed years past increasing in large part due to non-emergency transports.

In total the department went on a total of 1,926 runs within the township as well as an additional 40 runs to Presque Isle Township and Thunder Bay Village in Maple Ridge Township.

Alpena Township contracts with Presque Isle Township for its runs due to the previous fire department no longer being operational. Thunder Bay Village, inside Maple Ridge Township, is due to the logistical challenges faced of getting to the village in a reasonable time.

While the township has three stations in operation, the north and south side stations performed nearly every callout — with the west station performing one mutual aid callout in May.

The south side station performed 1,169 callouts compared to the 756 at the north side station.

Alpena Township Chief Kevin Osbourne said the higher callouts are due to an increase in EMS callouts, specifically non-emergency callouts.

“We’re doing more EMS calls,” he said. “So there is more emergency calls but there is also more non-emergency calls.”

Osbourne said the non-emergency call outs began in late 2010 and consist of transporting residents who need medical services but have no means of transportation. These call outs on average range from two to four hours while emergency runs average around a little more than an hour.

The township also responded to 38 fires for the year including grass fires, vehicle fires and other types and provided mutual assistance 69 times throughout the year.

On Tuesday Osbourne presented the Alpena Township Board of Trustees with the two previous years data to show the increase since 2014. With the addition of the outside township runs, in 2014 the department performed 1,699 runs, in 2015 the number was 1,751 and this year was 1,966.

With three of the four township ambulances operational, Osbourne was confident the department could meet the growing call numbers which he attributed some of the differences to the aging population.

“We’re currently staffed up and we have five people being trained for EMS and fire both,” he said.

Tyler Winowiecki can be reached via email at twinowiecki@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5688. Follow Tyler on Twitter tw_alpenanews. Read his blog, Just a Thought … at www.thealpenanews.com.

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