The Lake Mohegan Fire Department has seen an increase in the volume of calls they responded to in 2011, which is a total of 2,822, according to fire chief Brian Wolert.
Of those calls, 1,389 were fire/rescue related calls and 1,433 were fire department first response to EMS calls. The Mohegan Volunteer Fire Association Volunteer Ambulance Corps was dispatched 2,726 times and had 2,644 EMS responses.
Wolert said the increase in the call volume was due to the two storms Yorktown and Cortlandt experienced last year -- Hurricane Irene and the pre-Halloween snow storm. There were at least 100 calls per storm the fire department responded to, he said.
"We were very busy," he said. "My hat goes off to my members for the dedication they put into this."
The Lake Mohegan Fire Department is one of the largest in Westchester County and it's a mixed department of both volunteer and paid career firefighters. It is also one of the few departments where the career staff members can provide Emergency medical services (EMS) while waiting for the ambulance to arrive. The department covers 42 square miles and serves 25,000 to 30,000 residents in parts of Yorktown and Cortlandt, Wolert said.
"As far as the volunteers, what makes them tick I don't know," Wolert said. "What makes me tick is being around the men and women in my department and seeing their dedication."
The run breakdowns are as follows for LMFD response:
Structure Fires 16 Building Fires 2 Cooking Fires 15 Chimney Fires 6 Oil Burner Malfunctions 8 Brush Fires 12 Grass Fires 1 Vehicle Fires 14 Outside Rubbish Fires 5 Dumpster Fires 1 Commercial Compactor Fire 1 Motor Vehicle Accidents With Injuries 206 Motor Vehicle Accidents (Property Damage Only, No injuries) 57 Pedestrians Struck By Vehicles 15 Motor Vehicle Accident With Extrication 3 Hazardous Conditions 174 Service Calls 213 Good Intent Calls 172 False Alarm 12 Malicious (Activated Fire Alarm) 6 Unintentional (Activated Fire Alarm) 221 Malfunction (Activated Fire Alarm) 178 Carbon Monoxide/No CO Found: 37 Mutual Aid To Scenes In Other FD's 12 Severe Weather 2 FD EMS First Response 1,433The run breakdowns are as follows for MVFA-VAC response:
Medical emergencies 1,006 Motor vehicle Accident (With Injuries) 457 Other Medical 231 Falls 88 Cardiac Related 136 Cardiac Arrests 50 Standby's 20 Unknown Medical 106 Respiratory 250For more 2011 pictures and stories from the fire department, check out their newsaArchives and photo section. For more on Hurricane Irene, click here and for the October snowstorm, here and here.
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