Trending upward: Oswego Fire Protection District calls for service continue to rise

The Oswego Fire Protection District’s firefighters and emergency medical services personnel responded to 226 more calls for service last year than in 2019.

According to data in the fire district’s annual report, the agency responded to 5,703 calls for service in 2020, 4% more calls than the 5,477 calls for service received in 2019.

Fire district data also shows the number of service calls received by the district increased by 540 or 10% from 2017 when 5,163 calls for service were received.

Fire Chief John Cornish said the numbers in the 2020 annual report are indicative of a continuing trend toward more calls, though the past year’s increase is not solely attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There’s been a steady increase,” Cornish said. “There has been a steady increase since I started here in 2002...I think it’s difficult to say (as to the reasons).

“There’s no real way to measure that with regard to psych calls, cardiac arrests, chest pains and things of that nature. We had numerous calls where patients were COVID-positive, there were numerous people that were transported that had COVID-related signs and symptoms that did not test positive for COVID. It would be really challenging to say from year to year.”

Trends can be followed, Cornish explained, but at the end of the day, “calls come in when they come in.”

The fire district serves an estimated population of 65,000 residents residing in an area far beyond the borders of its namesake village of Oswego. The agency’s boundaries cover a 64-square-mile area that includes Oswego, the unincorporated Boulder Hill subdivision, much of the south side of the village of Montgomery, about 1 1/2 square miles of the Grande Park subdivision in the village of Plainfield, a small area of the city of Yorkville and the unincorporated county areas that lie between many of the municipal boundaries.

The district is staffed by 75 firefighter/paramedics.

Report shows Station No. 2 the busiest

The 2020 annual report indicates there is a large variance in the volume of calls handled by the district’s four stations.

According to the 2020 report, the OFPD Central Station No. 1 on Woolley Road in Oswego responded to 1,207 calls. Station 2 on Weisbrook Drive in Oswego responded to 2,604 calls and Station 3 at Galena Road in Montgomery responded to 1,596 calls. Station 4 on West 127th Street in Plainfield responded to 266 calls. Each station saw an increase in calls during 2020, but Station 3 saw the largest increase, jumping from 1,359 calls in 2019.

A breakdown of the fire calls received in 2020 showed 32 calls coded as building fires, eight cooking fires, 32 grass and vegetation fires, 13 calls for a missing person, 332 calls for motor vehicle accidents, 11 calls for vehicle fires, 83 calls for service including calls for carbon monoxide, 25 calls for trash, dumpster or outside waste fires, and eight calls for the removal of a victim from a stalled elevator.

Fire district EMS personnel also responded to a large number of medical calls in 2020 - 4,458 calls in 2020, an increase from the 4,381 calls responded to in 2019.

EMS personnel responded to 39 unconscious overdose patients, 95 calls of alcohol or drug ingestion, 65 calls of strokes, five mini strokes and 40 calls of reported cardiac arrest.

EMS also responded to 93 confirmed COVID-19 related calls in 2020, 258 calls of individuals with difficulty breathing, 214 calls of reported chest pain, 295 calls of generalized weakness, and 345 calls for behavioral/psych concerns.

The OFPD also received the Mission Lifeline (GOLD PLUS) award for the third year in the row. Mission Lifeline is the American Heart Association’s national initiative, advancing the system of care for patients with “acute, high-risk, time sensitive life and/or quality of life-threatening disease states,” according to the report.