Des Plaines and Park Ridge fire officials saw a surge in emergency calls last year, making 2011 one of the busiest in the history of both departments.
In Des Plaines, total calls jumped by 10 percent in 2011 over 2010, though fire calls dropped by about 7 percent, said Fire Chief Alan Wax. Last year represents the second-highest call volume — 7,683 — in the department’s history, he said, trailing closely behind 2008, which had 7,711 incidents.
Part of that jump is due to the Rivers Casino. In the gambling venue’s first 17 hours, the fire department was called to the site about 11 times, Wax said. For the first few months, paramedics and firefighters responded to the casino once a day, but that slowed to every day and a half by the end of the year, he said.
“This is a little bit more than we had anticipated, but not an extreme amount more,” said Wax, adding the department expected to send crews to the site once every few days based on information from other casino towns.
Fire officials have seen a variety of calls from the casino, ranging from intoxicated patrons to people falling and needing help to individuals with heart-related illnesses, he added.
False fire alarms skyrocketed by nearly 27 percent, Wax noted, which is a concern because that takes vehicles and personnel out of service and cuts the availability of units for other calls.
“We’re going to try and identify why that is the case,” Wax said of the false alarm figure.
He added 2011 had the highest number of ambulance calls with 5,244, which trumps 2008 when there were 5,209 ambulance calls.
Neighboring Park Ridge fire saw a 7 percent increase in emergency calls in 2011 over 2010, making last year the third busiest, said Deputy Fire Chief Jeff Sorensen. There were 4,308 emergency calls last year.
The jump could be caused by several different factors, including the severe storms that hit the area last year as well as more people without health insurance, Sorensen said.
“You’re not going to be able to point to one thing,” Sorensen said.
Though he could not recall a high amount of calls during the Groundhog Day blizzard, Sorensen said there were 85 calls in three days during the second last weekend in July.
Structure fires jumped by 20 percent — from 10 in 2010 to 12 in 2011 — while other kinds of fires, like vehicle, wild land and dumpster, dropped by 31 percent, from 48 to 33.
Sorensen said 2007 saw the most emergency calls — 4,561 — and 2008 had about 4,372.
“I think our pattern over the last few years is going up in general,” he said.
