Laconia Fire Department among busiest in N.H.

LACONIA — With close to 4,000 emergency calls among a total of 9,697 requests for service, the Laconia Fire Department remained one of the busiest in the state, according to the annual report Fire Chief Ken Erickson issued yesterday.

The 3,896 emergency calls represent a 62 percent increase in the past five years. Medical emergencies and rescue operations accounted for 68 percent of all emergency responses, while fires, both the 380 reported fires and 125 actual fires, represented 13 percent of the calls for service.

There were 1,635 simultaneous or consecutive emergency calls, more than double the number in 2000.

"The Laconia Fire Department responds to more multiple calls than most of neighboring departments respond to all calls," said Erickson.

Despite the increase in multiple calls, he said that emergency recalls, which averaged close to 300 a year, fell to 62 last year. Erickson attributed the decline to the additional firefighter on each shift funded by the Staffing Adequacy for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant which has expanded the department's capacity to respond to simultaneous calls and manage significant emergencies.

The 54 structure fires, 60 outdoor fires and 11 vehicle fires were the fewest since 2010. Erickson described 15 of the fires as "significant," with a four-alarm blaze in a multifamily apartment building on Davis Place that took the life of one resident as easily the most severe. The death was the first fire-related fatality in the city in 20 years. Altogether 17 individuals were displaced by that fire.

Erickson estimated the value of property lost to fire at $926,000, while noting that firefighters spared another $885,000 in property value from destruction. Along with the 125 actual fires, firefighters responded to more than 250 reported fires, or seven a week. The 411 alarm activations represented 10 percent of all calls.

The department responded to 2,422 medical emergencies, 118 vehicle collisions, seven entrapment rescues, 11 pedestrian accidents, 16 water or ice rescues and 72 other incidents and transported 1,841 patients -- 179 of them at high risk -- to Lakes Region General Hospital.

Erickson noted that drug overdoses, sudden deaths and cardiac arrests jumped 50 percent in 2014, with abuse of opiates contributing to a large share of the increase. He said that overdoses of heroin likely caused a dozen deaths and are suspected of contributing to another seven. At the same time, firefighters spared the lives of 25 people with timely administration of Narcan, which was used 46 times, double the number of occasions in 2013.

Firefighters also responded to 243 situations where downed wires, gas leaks, fuel spills, carbon monoxide structural failure threatened persons or property, and another 471 incidents requiring their assistance.

Meanwhile, department personnel also inspected 42 multifamily buildings, issued 1,253 permits and conducted 806 inspections of alarm, sprinkler, furnace, chimney and piping installations. And, in addition, spent more than 5,500 hours in training and education.

Erickson said that during the first quarter of 2015 the department has answered more than 1,000 emergency calls, a pace that would take the emergency call volume past 4,000 for the year. Measured by the number of firefighters and number of residents, he said that Laconia firefighters are among the busiest in New Hampshire.