It has been a lot of a year for Lodi Area Fire Chief Nate Sievers, with big changes still on the horizon.
At the start of 2023, after four years as assistant chief, Sievers was appointed fire chief, officially taking over from retiring Chief Bobby Annen on Feb. 1. At the end of the year, the department had responded to 132 calls, almost double the previous year’s total of 74.
“I ran all the numbers and it’s pretty even across the board–everything has increased,” said Sievers. “We were going a couple years without having a major structure fire, and we had four this year.”
If the Lodi Area Fire Department needs to call for outside help from other departments, it generally means the fire involves a large structure, or it is fully involved, of which they had four in the past year.