Another busy year for the Moscow Volunteer Fire Department

The year 2023 was the third-busiest in the Moscow Volunteer Fire Department’s history, and its chief believes this is going to be the new normal.

The agency responded to 2,723 calls for service during the year. Of those, 75% were Emergency Service Service and rescue calls. It also responded to 67 fires and hundreds of “other” calls that include false alarms, hazardous materials, natural gas emergencies and other citizen assists.

The fire department saw a significant increase in calls during 2021, which set the record for the department with 2,882 calls. Before 2021, it averaged about 2,400 calls a year, said Chief Brian Nickerson.

Even though calls have decreased since 2021, Nickerson does not envision it will ever return to that 2,400 range. His staff will continue to stay busy for the foreseeable future, he believes.

“I just don’t see it drastically reducing,” Nickerson said.

Nickerson said it is difficult to attribute a reason for the high number of emergencies. Furthermore, it is hard to find a distinguishable pattern. He said the Moscow Volunteer Fire Department stays busy even when college students are on break. There is no significant dip or increase in calls based on the college schedule.

“It’s pretty steady,” he said.

He said most calls occur between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Since Moscow is a college town, he said it is surprising the department does not see more calls during the late hours on weekends.

Nickerson said this makes it difficult to determine how many firefighters and emergency medical technicians should be on certain shifts.

What is certain, he said, is that the department would benefit from having more volunteers. In particular, the Moscow Fire Department would like to see more applications from permanent residents in the area.

The department has more than 80 volunteer firefighters, EMTs, paramedics and student resident firefighter volunteers. It has eight Moscow employees and command staff that oversee administration, operations, fire inspections, EMS billing and coordinating volunteers.

Nickerson said the department’s volunteers have a turnover rate of 50% every two years. That is partly because the department is a training ground for volunteers who will go on to be hired by other departments across the country.

Its residency program for college students has a maximum capacity of 24 volunteers. Nickerson said one of his goals during the next 10 years is to double that amount.

His more immediate goal is to recruit more permanent Latah County residents. He said this can be difficult because being a volunteer requires a significant time commitment. Training in the fire academy takes 160 hours, and EMT training requires 120 hours, for example.

Given the high number of emergencies the department has seen recently, Nickerson hopes more people are willing to take on that commitment. He said his staff could always use more helping hands.

“I don’t think it’s ever enough,” he said.

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.