Last year was a tough year for families who lost homes to fires, with $1.5 million in estimated fire losses calculated by the Lewiston Fire Department.
But Fire Chief Travis Myklebust said that loss is far less than years prior, reflecting good luck paired with quicker response times by firefighters. Myklebust said just a few years ago estimated fire losses were as high as $4 million or $5 million.
"Fire loss continues to be down. I need to find some wood to knock on," Myklebust said. "I see that as a benchmark report saying, here's where we want to be. We want to keep fire losses low."
The fire department's annual report, compiled and released last month, marked a downward trend in fire loss, a neutral level in revenues and about a 3.2 percent rise in call volume from 2016.