Emergency calls for the Racine Fire Department are up from 2015. The department had responded to 6,789 emergency response calls as of Aug. 23, up from 6,658 calls at the same point in 2015, according to Racine Fire Department Division Chief Jeff Perkins. “These cover a wide variety of emergencies such as fire, medical, hazardous materials, water rescues and other specialties,” Perkins said. Racine Fire responded to a total of 10,279 calls in 2015, 312 of which were structure fires. Structure fires remain at relatively the same pace in 2016 compared to this point in the year in 2015, with 196 structure fires compared to 197 in 2015. There were 115 structure fires alone after Aug. 23 in 2015. The most calls come for advanced life support and basic life support medical calls. Advanced life support calls are up to 3,532 this year compared to 3,391 calls at this point last year. Basic life support calls are down, though, from 1,935 calls by Aug. 23 in 2015 to 1,805 calls this year. Pulseless, non-breathing calls also are up this year — sitting at 97 calls in 2016 whereas there were 80 calls at this point in 2015. A big change for calls for the Fire Department has been calls for aid to other municipalities. Racine Fire had a total of six calls to other municipalities in 2015 and has already had 20 such calls in 2016.