By Michael Van Cassell
The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — City firefighters responded to more service calls for the fourth straight year in 2009, while police had fewer, breaking a three-year trend of steady increases.
Cheyenne Fire and Rescue responded to 7,081 calls last year, a 9.1 percent increase from 2008, according to public information officer Jeff Pallak.
Pallak said the greatest increase came in medical-related service calls.
“The bulk of our calls these days are rescue/EMS,” Pallak said.
Last year, there were 5,501 calls for rescue or emergency medical service, compared to 5,037 the previous year.
And July, the month when Cheyenne Frontier Days is held, was busier in 2009 than in previous years, Pallak said.
Since Pallak began tracking total calls in 2005, Cheyenne Fire and Rescue has seen its workload increase every year.
“We’re right around that nine, 10 percent increase each year,” Pallak said. “How long that continues, I have no idea.”
On Friday, Cheyenne Police Lt. Mark Munari estimated officers responded to about 70,000 calls in 2009, which would mark a decrease of roughly 8 percent from 2008.
Munari couldn’t account for the apparent decrease.
“Until I start seeing numbers to see where we had a huge decrease, I won’t know,” he said.
The Cheyenne Police Department saw increases in its call frequency every year from 2005 to 2008. The agency still handled about 5,000 more calls last year than it did in 2005.
While call totals were not available Friday from the Laramie County Sheriff’s Department or Laramie County Fire District 1, some rural firefighters responded to more calls for the fourth straight year.
Laramie County Fire District 2 responded to 655 calls last year, a 6 percent increase from the previous year, when there were 613.
But fire calls were down in District 2.
Public information officer Lew Simpson could not pinpoint why the increase in total calls occurred.
“There’s a lot of speculation out there as to why,” Simpson said.
As with Cheyenne Fire and Rescue, the bulk of calls into Fire District 2 are medical related.
“That, by far, is the largest part of responses now,” Simpson said.
While the rural fire district does benefit from mutual aid, more calls stretch resources.
“It’s very bad for us, especially on the daytime calls,” he said. “Everybody works a job, and being able to have people to respond during the day is probably our most critical situation.”
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