(File photo/paNOW Staff)

By Jaryn Vecchio

Fire Calls

P.A. fire department sees rise in calls in 2021

Jul 20, 2022 | 8:00 AM

The Prince Albert Fire Department (PAFD) was quite busy last year.

They officially released their 2021 stats earlier in the week which showed they received nearly 1,300 calls. This is a 19 per cent increase from 2020.

“If I took you back 10 years, there’s been a steady increase,” said Fire Chief Kris Olsen.

Outdoor/wildland fires saw the biggest jump (87 per cent), followed by vehicle fires (79 per cent).

There were also 92 structure fires across P.A. which is up from 80 in 2020 and 70 in 2019.

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The PAFD didn’t clarify in their stats how each fire was started; however, according to the Prince Albert Police Service (PAPS), there was an increase in arson cases year-over-year. In 2021, there were 52, while there were 45 in 2020.

“That’s where I would tend to go if having to provide an answer as to why we have more structure fires,” added Olsen.

Meanwhile, the only category which saw a decrease was false alarms. Last year, crews responded to 354 smoke alarms going off where there was no fire. There were 357 situations in 2020 and 363 in 2019.

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Jaryn.Vecchio@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow