It's been an interesting year for the Okotoks Fire Department so far in 2016.

The department responded to their highest number of calls in 2015. So far with a dry first quarter and lower response volumes in their second quarter of the year they have seen slight drops in all aspects of their day to day operations.

Fire Chief Ken Thevenot says they dealt with plenty of medical responses in the 2nd quarter but there were decreases kinds of calls.

Okotoks Fire Chief Ken Thevenot

"Overall incidents were down from 2015 we had 258 incidents in the second quarter of 2016," he says. "Compared to a decrease of 2015 of 303 incidents."

When the department wasn't out on calls they spent plenty of time training to be ready for any situation that comes their way especially with a large number of volunteer fire fighters and that's something that Thevenot and the department spend a lot of time on during the year.

"Community fire fighters spent 1149 hours and our full-time staff spent 511 hours. We had a total of 1660 hours of training, also our business inspections kept us busy over the second quarter we're on par now to complete almost 600 inspections."

Despite the drop in responses from a year ago Thevenot says it still like the department are as busy protecting the community and surrounding area.

"Overall percentage wise they seem to be going up the same in how we respond to calls, our percentages are generally the same even with the decrease in the number of calls this quarter."

Thevenot adds that Fire Services have been busy working more closely in the community with numerous fundraising efforts including their 'Fill The Boot Campaign' as well as introducing and promoting their free services like home inspections, the Safe Communities Alert Network and safety clinics at events like the Trade & Lifestyles Show earlier this year.

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