Call Statistics

• False Alarms: As you can see from the charts below, the vast majority of dispatches turn out to be "false" alarms...but of course, no alarm can be considered "false" until the non-emergency nature of it is verified.  This means that firefighters must routinely interrupt their employment, their lives--and their sleep--in order to investigate every alarm, including those caused by malfunctioning detector equipment. Please keep this fact in mind as you consider the proper maintenance of the detection equipment in your home or business.

• Automatic Alarms Other: Alarms caused by detection equipment which do not result in actual fires, yet cannot be properly classified as "false" in that they are not caused by malfunctions of the alarm equipment.  A smoke detector which senses burning food would be considered an "Automatic Alarm."

• Structure Fires: The primary business of the department, whereby the "Orange Monster" is hunted to extinction...until the next time.

• Vehicle Fires: When the "Monster" goes on a road trip, Highland is there to turn it back.

• Malicious False Alarms: Not pranks, but criminal activities which endanger firefighters and the community alike.

• Utility Details: Primarily natural gas leaks and electrical hazards, such as downed wires or malfunctioning transformers, but also including removal of storm-related debris,  including trees, from public areas.

• Carbon Monoxide Alarms: We don't always find dangerous conditions on these calls, but Carbon Monoxide (CO) is the leading cause of poisoning deaths in the United States, and CO detectors are one of the most valuable pieces of safety equipment you can have in your home. Buy them. Install them. Maintain them.

• Containment Details: Protect the environment by preventing contamination of soil and water resources by pollutants, including those which result from automobile collisions and chemical spills.

• Vehicle Rescue: Also known as "extrication," this process involves the use of power tools (such as the "Jaws of Life") to free entrapped patients of automobile accidents, enabling medics to render aid.  Vehicle rescues often coincide with containment details and have the potential to become vehicle fires.

• Brush Fires: With the Town of McCandless more than 95% developed, these calls come in less frequently as years go by.  Still, Highland is ready to protect our wooded areas...and the woodpile in your back yard!