Indian River Responds to 558 Alarms in 2024

 

In 2024, the Indian River Volunteer Fire Company responded to 558 alarms, making it the busiest year on record while serving the communities of Oak Orchard, Riverdale, Long Neck and surrounding vicinities.

Our firefighters and emergency response personnel play a significant role throughout the community providing vital fire and rescue services during times of need.

Illustrated herewith are statistics that illustrate the annual alarm data:

Year	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
Alarms	385	386	386	376	405	433	417	517

 

Year	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Alarms	479	490	403	480	454	496	473	558

 

Every fire department provides invaluable services to their respective communities. They respond to all types of emergency situations involving fires, explosions, rescues and medical emergencies, hazardous conditions, natural disasters, and automatic fire/false alarms. They also respond to nonemergency service calls and good intent calls. Often what is described to dispatchers does not reflect the actual incident; nevertheless, fire departments are trained and prepared to respond to a broad array of situations. The National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) is a topical report designed to classify incident types.

While “fire” is part of the department name, less than 10% of runs made by fire departments actually involve fire. Over half of all fire department runs are categorized as emergency medical services (EMS) and rescue type events. Automatic Fire / False alarms and good intent calls are the second and third most prevalent runs; actual fire runs are fourth.  As you may be aware, the Indian River Volunteer Fire Company does not provide nor operate EMS services within our fire district. 

Automatic fire alarms, false fire alarms, and/or good intent incidents pose a significant concern for businesses and residential property owners – they greatly impact the fire service as well. By understanding the causes and taking time to implement preventive measures, one could minimize false alarms, safeguard property, protect business operations, and enable the fire service to respond efficiently to genuine issues.