Since 1904 the Fairbanks Fire Department has served the community by providing medical and fire services. The station is a full-time career department, meaning that all of the staff is fully paid. Fairbanks Fire is also the busiest station in the Fairbanks area, receiving 15 calls a day on average.
“I believe we are almost all of the borough -- other departments combined -- just by the location and being the main center of the city... and that most of the borough comes into the city every day to shop, work and go to school and stuff,” said Battalion Chief Scott Raygor.
This year the department expects to break 6,000 calls, a record high.
“We are increasing about 10% a year every year,” Raygor said.
To deal with this high volume of calls, the department has to delegate, either by taking resources from one call and sending them directly to another call, or by relying on mutual aid from other departments.