Fire

The Fire Department responded to 470 alarms during the most recent month including five structure fires, four vehicle fires, two trash fires, and 14 hazardous condition calls.  Three of the structure fires were in Tennessee and two were a Bristol Virginia mutual aid assistance call.

As usual, the majority of the alarms responded to by fire personnel were emergency medical calls (356) representing 75% of the call volume.  The EMS call-type included 110 BLS (basic life support) and 146 ALS (advanced life support); as well as 68 treatment refusals and 32 transferred-care calls.  We are very proud of our Class A rating from the Tennessee Department of EMS for our excellent ambulance service operations.

The average emergency response time to have the first unit on the scene for our three structure fires was an impressive 2 minutes, 58 seconds; the average response time for the two vehicle fires was 4:16.

Importantly, Bristol Tennessee and Bristol Virginia utilized our automatic aid/mutual aid agreements a total of 29 times last month.  Our personnel provided assistance to Bristol Virginia on 12 incidents and received assistance on 17 of our responses.  These agreements enhance the capability of both fire departments to meet the fire suppression needs of our two cities in a cost-efficient manner for our respective taxpayers.