Fresno Fire See’s Increase in Fire Calls

"It’s going to be a record year as far as fire response", says Tony Escobedo, fire battalion chief for fire station 11.

Battalion chief Tony Escobedo works at fire station 11 on the north end of town, he says that crews are extremely busy this summer and year.

"In Fresno we’re one of the 5th busiest departments and a matter of fact, some years, including this one, if we were the size of Los Angeles, we’d be busier than they are", says Chief Escobedo.

Last year Fresno crews responded to about 25 hundred fire calls, this year they have already seen more than 14 hundred.

Eric Orong is working his first shift for the department after graduating from the academy, he says that it’s been a busy 48 hours.

"It’s been pretty busy, we’ve ran 17 calls in the last 30 or so hours, majority of them were medical aids and we had a large residential fire last night", says Orong.

With the increase in calls crews sirens are constantly sounding.

"The reliability of the system really suffers when you have calls that continue to occur in the same area because you continue to pull from where ever", says fire captain Carl Delap.

The department has also made more that 12,000 thousand ems calls and worked more than 133 fires.

"Obviously the drought, pour maintenance of our homes and we do have a good amount of arsonists in the city as far as copycats or they are just doing it on their own, we have a high level of arsonists in the city and it keeps us rather busy", says Chief Escobedo.

"For some people lighting fires is one way to get their excitement but in the long story it makes our job a little more difficult", says Orong.

If you’re going to be setting off fireworks on your street or near your home tomorrow night, crews say you should try watering your lawn before, just in case.