RAPID CITY, S.D. – Pairing a brutal summer fire season with a lean staff – voices in the Rapid City Fire Department were saying it sure felt like a busy fire season.
The RCFD released its yearly numbers this week and Rapid City Fire Department Fire Chief Jason Culberson places an average amount of calls around 12,000. Over the 365 days of 2021, the RCFD responded to more than 21,0000 calls, a record high.
According to the numbers from 2020, that’s a 10 percent increase in call volume compared to 2020. Only 1,500 of the calls were for fires or potential fires, and around 16,000 being medical-related.
RCFD Public Information Officer Tessa Jaeger says while those roughly 16,000 medical calls make up the bulk, there is no denying another major factor in the department’s hectic year.
“This past year has been very dry and all the precautions we’ve had to take, so to see a record for wildland fires isn’t shocking to me because we’ve had such a dry year, and we responded to 98 wildland fires.”
Jaeger says that surpsasses the previous record of 88 in 2012.
