Firefighters in one northern Michigan department just had their busiest year ever.
Grand Traverse Metro Fire says 2020 was busier than ever – and they took more calls in December than any single month ever before. Metro responded to 5,010 calls in 2020, and 494 calls in December alone.
Some of the calls were COVID-related or medical calls, and there was an increase in calls to serve the homeless population and adult foster care homes.
But Chief Pat Parker says there was no one single factor driving the increase. “When we were pretty much shut down back in March and April, our calls dipped down to – sometimes we only went out 2-3 times a day. That’s over five stations. And now to see we set a new Metro Fire Logorecord of 5010 calls. Our December was the busiest month we’ve ever had on record.”