The fire chief in Kamloops says he’d like to see one category of service calls reduced in 2019 – calls for actual fires.

Kamloops Fire Rescue responded to nearly 7,000 service calls last year, and chief Mike Adams says five per cent of those were for fires.

“I look at that five per cent for fires, we’re really striving to drive that down. As much as some might feel that’s counter-intuitive, the best emergency is one that doesn’t occur. I think by driving that down through education and prevention, we’ll find that we’ll continue to develop and be an overall safer community,” he says.

“Our commitment is to public safety of the citizens of Kamloops, and we want to ensure that they feel safe and secure in their homes. And a big part of that is to get our crews out, providing them with the educational information and the tools for prevention and mitigation.”

Overall, Adams says the call volume to the fire department was down about 12 per cent in 2018.

The majority of service calls for the fire department, 66 per cent, were for medical incidents. Adams says that’s right on par with what the department would expect.

“If you look at comparable departments throughout the province, and actually throughout the country, that provide first responder or medical assistance, you’ll find that on the average it’s 60 to 70 per cent of their call volume.”