The Vale Fire & Ambulance Department recorded a surge in medical calls in 2023 attributed to the older population and an upswing in overdoses from fentanyl use.
Fire Chief Jess Tolman said the number of responses to fires remained steady but a “little bit of everything” put the ambulances on the road more often in 2023.
“Vale is an older community. A lot of people are on Medicaid and use the ambulance more as a taxi type of service,” he said.
In 2022, the department responded to 604 medical calls. In 2023, the ambulance rolled 666 times, he said.
While Tolman did not have statistics specifically regarding overdose calls, he said they were “significant.”
“In the last few years, I’ve used Narcan more than I have in the past 20 years as an EMT,” he said.
Tolman said his medics are “probably seeing one or two overdoses every month.”