Fire Chief Cain told the Springfield City Public Safety Committee that the fire department responded to 21,516 calls for service in calendar year 2024, including 34 structure fires and eight multiple-alarm fires.

"For calendar year '24, Springfield Fire Department did 21,516 calls for service. 34 of those were structure fires. 8 were multiple alarm fires. We did 11,624 medical calls," Chief Cain said.

The chief said 2024 was the first year since February 2008 that the city did not record a fire fatality.

The department reported recent equipment acquisitions and training: one new tower ladder and a new rescue squad were procured last calendar year, and the training division ran specialty heavy-lifting classes and regular rapid intervention and active-shooter response training.

Chief Cain also described staffing plans and recent promotions. He said the department is hiring 23 new personnel: three already academy-trained hires will start immediately when uniforms arrive and 20 will attend the academy with a scheduled July 12 graduation. "There's going to be we're actually hiring 23," the chief said, and he added the academy class is scheduled for a July 12 graduation.

The chief said last year the department promoted one captain and three lieutenants. He reported the department's authorized uniform strength is 278 personnel. He also noted workforce trends: the department has people in the retirement pipeline and members on injured-on-duty (IOD) status. "We currently have, 8 people in the retirement pipeline and there's 20 people on IOD status," he said.

On diversity and staffing composition, the chief gave an EEO breakdown he summarized as roughly a 60/40 split and said women make up about 1.5 percent of the uniformed ranks. He also said call volume is up 3 percent year over year and is about 36 percent higher than in 2017.

Committee members asked routine budget and hiring questions. Chief Cain said the department put in a level-service budget and accepted a 3 percent reduction that required cutting some equipment and maintenance items. On summer safety, the chief reminded residents that outside burning is not allowed in Springfield and described a recent illegal burn that destroyed a garage, a boat and damaged multiple homes.

The committee did not take any formal action on the fire report; the presentation was an informational update.