ANKENY, Iowa — With 2022 officially in the rearview mirror, firefighters and paramedics with the Ankeny Fire Department finally have some time to rest. That's because the department responded to a grand total of 7,338 service calls throughout the year—an average of just over 20 a day.
"Our call volume increases realistically, every day, it seems like," said Zach Farrell, a firefighter/paramedic with the Ankeny Fire Department. "I think last year we're 7% over from the previous year, which is pretty much right on pace with as fast at the city's growing,"
So with Ankeny's population growth, that increase in service calls might not seem like a shock.
But what might be more surprising is the fact that the majority of calls to the fire department aren't actually for fires at all.
"The running joke here is we're an ambulance service that has fire trucks," Farrell said. "It's probably between 85 to 90% of our calls."
Ankeny isn't the only fire department in Iowa having a record-setting year.
Saylor Township Fire Department ended their busiest year ever with their busiest month ever. The department responded to 1,333 calls throughout 2022, and 129 of them were in December alone.
But keeping up with the calls is getting a bit tougher. Fire department officials said that they're having to lean on crew members working overtime more often to keep their stations ready to respond to emergencies at a moment's notice.
"It's tough to get a large enough candidate pool to to have a solid hiring class," Farrell said. "So we've kind of had from both sides where people are wanting to come and spend their entire lives with the fire department. But also we don't have a bunch of people to apply either."
The emergency worker shortage is a nationwide issue. According to the American Ambulance Association, approximately 1/3 of all EMTs left the field in 2021, with low pay being the most common reason.