Zero Fire Deaths in 2012; Reported Incidents Trending Downward

Earlier this week, we took a look at the 2012 statistics detailed by the Salem Police Department in the annual town report.

Today we are looking at the Salem Fire Department, which saw a very slight down-tick in reported incidents compared to 2011. Compared to the 4,678 fire incidents reported in 2011, 4,609 were reported in 2012. Zero deaths took place during the year.

According to the report, 3,203 of those incidents, or 70 percent, came from Salem Fire headquarters. South Station responded to 885, or 19 percent, and North Station responded to 521, or 11 percent.

One statistic that might surprise residents in the report was the 2,877 incidents that occurred while at least one other on-duty crew was responding to another incident.

"When this happens, the resulting impacts for citizens requesting emergency services are they must wait longer for help to arrive as personnel must respond from further distances including somethings arriving from other communities when Salem personnel are committed to other calls," said Fire Chief Kevin Breen.

But despite that statistic, 73 percent of incidents reported took six minutes or less to respond to. A total of 11 percent of incidents took 10 minutes or more.

The department also detailed when incidents were reported, with a slight increase in reports from other days on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays.

The report also outlines financial gains from ambulance fees, which increased in 2012 after a new rate schedule went into effect. The department collects over $1 million in fees each year, which directly offset property taxes. Grants received by the department in 2012 totaled over $1.3 million.