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Stow fire department: EMS now roughly three-quarters of calls as annual run volume rises
Summary
Fire Chief Stone told the Roads & Safety Commission and council that the Stow Fire Department ran 5,524 calls last year, with EMS making up about 73% of runs. The department reported growing unit demands and described programs to reduce risks and manage ambulance transport delays.
Chief Stone presented the Stow Fire Department annual report at the Roads and Safety Commission meeting and later to the Council on June 12, 2025, describing steady growth in the department’s workload and a high share of medical responses.
The department reported 5,524 calls in the last year. Chief Stone said EMS responses accounted for roughly 4,000 of those runs—about 73% of total run volume—matching a national pattern of fire departments providing more medical transport and EMS services than fire suppression. "When I was hired nearly 25 years ago, we were running just over 3,000 calls a year," Chief Stone said, describing a sustained increase in demand.
Chief Stone and presenters explained several additional measures: total unit responses (the sum of all apparatus dispatched) were 10,738, which the department uses to show how multiple units responding to single incidents accelerate strain on available resources. The chief said the department handled 71 actual fire incidents last year and that roughly one in five calls is tied to medical or extended-care facilities. To address transport and capacity challenges, the department uses a delayed-transport policy for non-life-threatening cases to coordinate with private ambulance providers when on-scene evaluation does not require immediate hospital transport.
Commission and council members asked about the department’s smoke-alarm and safety outreach. The department said its free home program installs battery-operated, 10-year smoke alarms and provides referrals or guidance for hardwired systems (which the department will not install). The chief directed residents to contact the fire department by phone or email to enroll in the smoke-alarm program.
The presentation included projections that call volumes are trending upward; the department said it expects continued increases in coming years and is using the data for staffing and capital planning. The report was informational; no council action was required at the meeting.
