Well, I guess I'll try to start it off. I don't recall exact figures, but for the volunteer department I work with, about 60% of our calls relate to Motor Vehicle Accidents (including EMS assists and establishing landing zones for Air Medical transport helicopters). The rescue squad is made up of members of the FD who have attained additional skills in rescue, swift water events, confined space, hazardous materials, and has at least Emergency Care Attendant certification (most of the 20 members of the squad are at EMT, EMT-I or paramedics). The typical response consists of a rescue truck and one engine, as well as EMS of course - a separate organization in the city's structure, but sharing some personnel.
A fire alarm response usually depends on the nature of the call, as well as the time of day, of course. A fire alarm out in the county frequently requires a mutual aid response from neighboring departments (mostly tankers and additional personnel). We have a very effective functioning mutual aid agreement among our fire departments.
So far as things electrical, it seems that at least half of our fire alarm calls are the result of some type of electrical failure. The economic level of this area is not really good, and there are a lot of people, both inside the city limits (where codes are in effect), and out in the county (where practically anything goes, unfortunately) try to do their own electrical work or "help" their neighbor, usually with disastrous results. I could easily go on into some of the things I have seen, but I'm sure y'all have seen the same, and probably worse.
Hope this helps...
Mike (mamills)
[This message has been edited by mamills (edited 06-30-2003).]
