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Monday, November 21, 2016

OC emergency calls increased this summer

Calls were up to Ocean City emergency services this summer and they did not go unanswered, even though the number of full-time had dropped.

“We had exceptional availability this summer, arguably, the best one we’ve ever had,” said Fire Chief Chris Larmore said during the mayor council’s Tuesday work session. “When we had a call come in, a staff unit was able to respond all but one time. That one time, they split a crew and was able to answer both calls.”

Each year, Larmore gives the mayor and council his summary of the fire department performed from June 1 to Aug. 31. This year saw the call volume spike from 2,810 in 2015 to 3,218 this last summer.

The fact that the resort’s firefighters missed none of these calls is notable, he said, since full-time staff members dwindled from 43 in 2015 to 41 to this year. The number of part-time firefighters has slightly risen in the past year to 71.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jeepers! Emergency calls increased??!!!

And so they will do each and every summer as the tourist and worker demographics and economics change. You'd be better off and serve the public better if you looked at some stats and came to the obvious conclusions, rather than the he-said-she-said reporting that is the crux of this news article. It may as well have been a straight press release. C'mon! It's November. You can't be all that busy!

Anonymous said...

Since the system is working so smoothly, why continue with the mayor's plan to change the shifts? To do it now would convince me that it's more of a vindictive matter than a professional need.

Anonymous said...

If the shifts we as harmful to public and employee safety as he wants people to think he, as the chief would have ceased the shifts back in the spring.