Des Moines Sun

The Des Moines Fire Department had a full calendar in 2022, responding to an emergency call nearly every 16 minutes over the course of the year.

Preliminary numbers show that Des Moines’ 11 fire stations responded to a record 32,496 calls during the 2022 calendar year, an increase more than 5% from last year’s 30,885 calls.

"This is part of a larger trend we’ve been seeing for a decade now, and we’re committed to serving each and every call as if it’s the only one” Des Moines Fire Chief John TeKippe said. 

“Our residents know that when they have a medical or fire-related emergency, they have the best in the business dedicated to respond and assist them."

While fire is in the name of the department, fires were not the primary call responded to, but it’s important to note that fires generally require significantly more units to respond to. Nearly two-thirds of the record calls (20,625 calls) were Emergency Medical Services calls while only 964 calls were fire-related emergencies.

“Putting out fires is just the beginning of the job description at the Des Moines Fire Department,” TeKippe said. “That’s why we’ve focused on hiring and training high quality recruits to serve the City of Des Moines.”

The Des Moines Fire Academy has become a crucial part of keeping up with the increased demand of emergency calls as the DMFD conducted an additional accelerated 99th Fire Academy during the 2022 year. DMFD also plans to graduate its 98th Fire Academy early in 2023 as well as kicking off the 100th Class later this month.

Additionally, long-term analysis of fire station facilities is underway to improve service across the city with the recent addition of Fire Station 11 and the planned new location of Fire Station 4 designed to reduce response times across the City of Des Moines.

Original source can be found here.