While overall calls remain high, the Sun City Fire Department is moving into a slower season.
Paramedic calls dropped below 900 in August. The department routinely sees calls of 900 ore more during a month, with overall calls — including fires and others — regularly topping 1,000.
“The drop in August was due mostly because we were starting to get cooler weather,” said Ron Deadman, Sun City fire chief.
The department also responded to nine fires in August, an increase from the monthly average. But Mr. Deadman characterized most of those incidents as nuisance fires.
The majority of Sun City Fire and Medical Department calls for service are medical related and each call brings a fire engine to the location. That is because the trucks are staffed with paramedics assess and stabilize the patient or patients and determine if an ambulance is needed. The Sun City department operates its own ambulances for advanced life support calls while American Medical Response handles basic life support calls, such as non-emergency transports.