The Wausau Fire Department received 6,686 calls in 2022 which is about 200 calls less than the previous year, but the department is busier than ever.
“The Wausau Fire Department in 2022 had the busiest year in history,” said Chief Bob Barteck, Wausau Fire Department. He added that Wausau had more than a 3% increase in calls in comparison to 2021 and despite making a policy change to off-site facility alarm response, 99.9% of those were false alarms.
From 2021-’22, unit responses dropped from 10,055 to 9,518. Now, they send the closest unit until it has been confirmed to be a real fire instead of treating every call as a legitimate fire.
Chief Barteck said looking at the data and trying to figure out the reason for the increase in service is complicated. “There’s not one single source that we see that call volume coming from.”