Medicine Hat Fire and Emergency Services responded to thousands of incidents in 2023. (Courtesy: MHFES social media)

By Eli J. Ridder | @EliRidder

Five things to know from Medicine Hat’s 2023 year-end fire and emergency services report

Mar 13, 2024 | 11:16 AM

Medicine Hat’s fire and emergency services 2023 year-end report is coming to council on March 18.

Here are five takeaways from the report:

1. Response times surpass target

Medicine Hat’s fire services met a critical response time target in 2023.

Firefighters responded to structure fires in 6:06 minutes, 90 per cent of the time. That surpassed a city council-set goal of 6:20 minutes.

IN THE COMMUNITY

'Compassionate Friends' offer peer support for bereaved in Medicine Hat

6h ago

POSTAL STRIKE

Donations to Medicine Hat non-profits drop over Canada Post strike

6h ago

IN THE COMMUNITY

Medicine Hat's Adopt-A-Rink program still seeking volunteers

15h ago

2. Millions saved by emergency services

Millions of dollars have been saved by the actions of the city’s emergency services.

The report says $56.6 million worth of property and infrastructure caught fire, but $54.5 million of that was saved and protected by emergency services.

3. Thousands educated on fire prevention

Thousands of people have received fire prevention education from Medicine Hat emergency services.

That includes 5,110 students from kindergarten to Grade 6, 130 adults and 130 seniors, among others.

4. Thousands of incidents

The fire and emergency services reports there were 4,425 fire incidents in 2023.

The report says 2,479 of those were emergency incidents.

The largest category of incident was the life safety checks, making up 34.4 per cent of the reported incidents. Alarms made up 14.3 per cent and medical first response made up 13.9 per cent.

5. Hired 10 positions

The fire and emergency services has also hired for 10 positions in 2023.

In total, there’s 114 staff supporting six areas in fire suppression, communications, community safety, training and logistics, emergency management and administration.