DeKalb fire officials to present annual report to City Council on Monday

Report shows emergency calls decreased by 343 in 2020 compared to 2019, with pandemic a factor in those ‘reluctant to leave their homes’

DeKalb firefighter/paramedic Pat Eriksen sanitizes the interior of an ambulance Wednesday, Dec. 2 at DeKalb Fire Station No. 1, with a new disinfectant sprayer the department recently acquired. Extra precautions and equipment have been necessary to keep fire department staff safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

DeKALB – After 14 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, DeKalb Fire Department officials will outline for the City Council this week how the pandemic affected operations during their annual report presentation.

According to the Monday meeting agenda, the department responded to 6,325 requests for emergency services – a decrease of 343 calls compared to 2019. However, the COVID-19 pandemic factored into those numbers, since fire officials saw “a dramatic decrease in requests for service” during the first few months of the pandemic.

“Citizens were reluctant to leave their homes, including visits to the hospital, doctor, and other health care providers,” the meeting documents state. “Social gatherings came to a halt; schools and businesses closed; and people isolated themselves according to government mandates.”

The DeKalb City Council meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday at the DeKalb Public Library, according to meeting documents.

DeKalb Fire Chief Jeff McMaster said in December ambulance calls are rising sharply for the department. He said those calls have increased by almost 25% each year in the past three years – meaning the department’s ambulances are out on the road a lot more and, if they’re out on an ambulance call or they’re at a hospital and a fire call comes in, they’re not responding out of the station.

McMaster also said in December one of the biggest challenges for the fire department in the previous year was the expense of personal protective equipment, or PPE, and availability of that equipment. He said the department maintains ample stock, but an N95 mask that previously cost $25 for a pack of 20 now costs $7 per mask.

That has deep impacts on the budget – with doubled spending for EMS staff – but hasn’t affected hiring, since those are two separate pots of money, McMaster had said.

“The fire department is paying exorbitant amounts of dollars for protective equipment, which we’re going to do, and that goes for disinfectant … but that’s all supply and demand,” McMaster said in December.

DeKalb City Manager Bill Nicklas said in March the City’s EMS crews have wracked up about $681,000 over budget in overtime responding to increased called directly related to the pandemic from March 2020 through February 2021.

“Fire personnel were much more active in direct service to people suffering from COVID symptoms,” Nicklas previously said.

Nicklas had said the City plans for overtime every fiscal year for first responders – including fire, police and public works – and those funds generally come from the City’s general reserves. Though the amount of overtime pay, meaning time and a half, that is budgeted changes from year to year, he said, the City initially budgeted about $450,000 in fire overtime for 2020.

Nicklas previously said overtime is paid out of the City’s general fund reserves and part of the CARES Act funding the City received – which was $1.8 million total – helped cover the more than $1 million worth of overtime this time around. He said this year’s overtime going over budget was challenging this year with the revenue shortfall from the pandemic – and it’s not like City police officers and firefighters can just clock out after 40 hours in a week when they need to be on call for emergency situations.

“So that only aggravated the problem,” Nicklas had said.

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