Amador County – Jackson City Council unanimously approved hiring a fire engineer on Monday, urging it to be done as soon as possible for safety reasons.

The hiring was done on staff recommendation, as the Council learned it has fire protection reserves of $700,000 and the calls for service continue to climb, after a record setting number of calls were answered in 2011 by the Jackson Fire Department.

City Manager Mike Daly said the 1,215 total calls for service last year were the first time Jackson Fire answered more than 1,000 calls for service in a year. He said January the Fire Department answered 136 calls for service, so the record year last year “was not something that was a fluke.”

Fire Chief Marc Crain said the department’s calls last year were led by 826 medical aid calls, making up 68 percent of all calls, which he said is a national trend. In 2011 there were also 159 public assist calls (13 percent), 111 fire related calls (9 percent), and 94 vehicle accident calls (8 percent).

Crain said the 21 crew members of the Jackson Fire Department, including four paid personnel, logged 2,215 hours of training last year. He said most of the service calls happen during the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., the critical time when most of our volunteers are at work. Three fire crew members attending the meeting Monday, including Chiefs Mark Morton and Chief Fishback respond to the most incidents, he said.

Crain said Jackson Fire typically has one staff member on duty, and responding and carrying out duties at service calls depends on volunteers being able to make it to the call.

He said when there is one person staffing the station, the skills such as extrication and fire fighting need two people, and even with off-duty officers responding, a lot of times the response is delayed. He said they depend a lot on Morton and Fishback being able to leave Meek’s Hardware Store. When they can’t, they are short-handed.

Crain said 103 days of the calendar year, they have one person on duty, and they are usually able to get volunteers to sign up. He said they had a bunch of incidents Monday (Feb. 13) and the engine from Argonaut had one person on it.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.