One Third of Lower Mac Fire Calls are False Alarms

Lower Macungie Fire Chief David Nosal addressed the township Board of Commissioners at its Jan. 3 meeting to deliver his annual statistical year in review.

Nosal also said that the Lower Macungie Fire Department will soon renew its gold certification signifying that every active member of the department is certified by the state.

Lower Macungie is the only fire department in the county that has achieved this designation.

In 2012:

• Total responses for Lower Macungie Fire Department: 429, down from 498 in 2011
• 365 in Lower Mac, 64 outside the township
• Of the 429, 128 were false alarms
• Average turnout per incident: 15 firefighters
• Average response time: 4 minutes 46 seconds, down from 5 minutes 15 seconds in 2011
• Busiest hour of the day: 6-7 p.m.
• Busiest day of the week: Monday
• Total man hours: 13,745
• Of the 45-member staff, average man hours per person for the year: 319.65
• Total fire responses including calls with Emmaus, Alburtis, Western Salisbury, Macungie and Upper Macungie fire departments: 438

Nosal said the number of false alarms are high and hard on the department.

Commissioners are considering new legislation that could lower the number of times one home or business can call the fire department to a false alarm before it is fined. Currently that number is four times in a calendar year.

The BOC is also considering raising the amount of the fine offenders pay from its current $300.

For more information, including how to volunteer, see the LMFD website.