SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. — Last month, the Spokane Valley Fire Department saw a record number of calls for medical emergencies.
It wasn’t just the busiest January for the Spokane Valley Fire Department, but it was also the busiest month on record.
“It was the busiest month for us in our history,” Frank Soto Jr., chief of the Spokane Valley Fire Department, said.
At just under 2,200 calls, Spokane Valley paramedics had a busy January. Most of those calls (80%), were emergency medical service calls.
Many of those incidents were weather-related. One of them even involved a Spokane Valley Ladder Truck.
Last month, a car slid on the ice and put that truck out of service.
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“Everyone’s going to have trouble driving in that kind of weather,” Soto Jr. said. “In fact, you look at the direct impact to the fire department when they crashed into Ladder 10.”
With such a high call volume, the fire department used “Auto Aid.” It’s an assisted dispatch that sends other fire departments to an incident if the Spokane Valley Fire Department is too busy.