By Jack Chavez, Staff Writer

(July 28, 2022) With FY22 in the books, Berlin Fire Company President David Fitzgerald and Fire Chief RJ Rhode briefed the Berlin mayor and Town Council during their meeting on Monday on the numbers from the last quarter of the fiscal year.

Of the 101 calls that the company took for fire and rescue responses, 36 were in-town while 65 were outside its jurisdiction. Altogether, it was an increase of five calls over the 2021 numbers.

Thursday was the busiest day of the week, followed by Tuesday. The busiest times of the day were 9 p.m. to 10 p.m., followed by 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. and then 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.

During the quarter there were 23 simultaneous calls — or instances in which two or more fire or rescue calls occurred at the same time. There were only 14 such cases last year, all of which occurred in the offseason months.

The average response time in the fourth quarter was 3.75 minutes, a total decrease of 0.33 minutes.

Volunteers accounted for 2,414.11 hours during the quarter — split between 1,409.11 volunteer hours on emergency calls and 1005 hours on non-emergency tasks such as training, meetings and fundraisers.

During the quarter, more than $9,000 was spent on fuel and more than $20,000 on vehicle maintenance.

The company has also asked that surplus and ARPA funds be used to acquire breathing apparatus and a rear parking lot, noting that there is $220,000 allocated in the FY23 town budget.

The report marked four items under capital apparatus replacement — three engines aged 15, 23 and 33 years old and a rescue vehicle that is 22 years old.

On the Emergency Medical Services side, 246 calls were made in-town and 230 were made for out-of-town, a decrease of nine calls from last year.

There were 183 in-town transportations and 63 non-transports, compared to 116 and 114 out-of-town, respectively.

The busiest day for EMS was also Thursday but was followed by Wednesday. The hour from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. was the busiest time followed by 3 p.m.

ARPA requests include cardiac monitors, an event response vehicle for $40,000 and abundance replacements totaling $630,000.

The report pointed out that there are no capital funds for ambulance replacements, which are due in 2025, 2027 and 2029.

All county funds received for “per ambulance allocation” are being used to pay the loan payments for the ambulances, the report said.