The DeKalb County Fire Department has compiled its 2014 Incident Response Summary.
Overall, 2014 fire incident responses in the county were up by 126 calls from 2013. In 2013, the department responded to a total of 278 fire-related incidents. The department responded to 404 fire-related incidents in 2014. This count does not include medical responses made by members of the department who are medically trained.
With DeKalb County's rural population growing at rates higher than the cities’ population growth in DeKalb County, Chief Donny Green said the department continues to experience annual increases in the number of incident calls within the county jurisdiction. Automobile accidents, responses to storm-related damages, and grass/forest/debris fires were the categories with the most noticeable increases of incident call volume for 2014.
The DeKalb County Fire Department is a 100 percent volunteer fire department with no paid staff. Volunteers do receive a $10 per call fuel reimbursement and those who excel in training attendance and incident responses are eligible to receive annual training/response award incentives. The department operates out of 11 substations located in communities across the county and currently is staffed with 78 volunteer firefighters.
The following is a year 2013 and 2014 comparison in the following types of Incident Responses:
Structure fires: 48 (year 2013), 45 (year 2014).
Wildland/Grass/Debris fires: 28 (2013), 60 (2014).
Auto Wrecks: 76 (2013), 103 (2014).
Vehicle Fires: 10 (2013), 14 (2014).
Landing Zones: 30 (2013), 50 (2014).
Extrication/Entrapment: 30 (2013), 32 (2014).
Hazmat: 1 (2013), 3 (2014).
Alarms: 32 (2013), 45 (2014).
Miscellaneous: 23 (2013), 52 (2014).