Increase in Emergency Calls

The Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) has reported an increase in the number of emergency calls responded to in 2022, when compared to the previous year.

“Our overall responses totalled 16,696… an increase of 304 or two per cent,” said Commissioner, JFB, Stewart Beckford, during an interview with JIS News.

Of the total number of calls received, 7,756 were genuine fire calls; 1,220 malicious false alarms; 1,079 motor-vehicle accidents; 4,431 emergency medical services and 1,694 special service, which included search and rescue and oil spills on the roadways.

Another 516 of the calls were related to fires that were put out before the arrival of the JFB.

The Commissioner informed that structural fires – those relating to buildings – accounted for 1,427 of the genuine fire calls that were received “and that’s up from the 1,397 that we would have responded to in 2021”.

The genuine calls also included those related to electrical equipment fires, bush fires and dump fires. The latter saw a 10 per cent increase, moving from 1,493 in 2021 to 1,640 in 2022.

Despite an increase in the overall number of emergency calls, Commissioner Beckford pointed out that there was a 12 per cent decrease in the number of bush fires for 2022.

“We would have responded to 3,518 as opposed to 4,001 the previous year… due mainly to the fact that January, February and March of last year were unseasonably wet,” the Commissioner informed.

He added that the JFB’s public education campaign, which targets farmers, also played a role in the decrease of bush fires.