Every month, Bedford Fire Chief Scott Wiggin releases the department’s call report. The following includes fire, rescue and building/health department statistics:

For the month of March, the department responded to 36 fire calls and 92 for ambulance. In comparison, in March 2008, the department responded to 42 fire calls and 108 for ambulance.

Miscellaneous calls in March included: 10 service calls, 53 field inspections, eight plan reviews, 75 burning permits, and no blasting permits. In March 2008, there were 13 service calls, 67 field inspections, two plan reviews, no burning permits, and one blasting permits.

So far this year, department responded to 120 fire calls, 295 calss for ambulance, 30 service calls, 152 field inspections, 20 plan reviews, 76 burning permits, and no blasting permits, totaling 693 fire/rescue and miscellaneous calls.

The department currently employs 28 full-time employees, and nine paid on-call firefighters, of which 12 are paramedics/ EMTs; 16 intermediates/EMTs, eight basic EMTs, and one first responder.

“We currently staff four shifts with a minimum of four shift personnel to a maximum of six per shift,” said Mark Klose, fire deputy chief of operations and training.

– Susan Clark