Fire chief reports rising call volume; community paramedicine cut extended-care calls

Westfield Fire Chief Rob Gaylor told the Board of Public Works and Safety that the department continues to see rising call volume and that a recently added community paramedic role has reduced calls to extended-care facilities.

Gaylor said the department recorded 445 apparatus responses in April 2025 compared with 385 in April 2024, an increase he cited as about 13.48 percent. "April was a busy month for us," Gaylor said, adding the department's average turnout time was one minute and 12 seconds for the month. He also noted year-to-date call volume is up more than 8 percent compared with the prior year.

On efforts to reduce non-emergency calls from long-term-care facilities, Gaylor said the city added "a community, paramedicine, or paramedic to our our staff earlier this year." He said that through education and outreach their calls to extended-care facilities dropped from 66 events in April 2024 to 46 events in April 2025. "This still equates to over 20% of our EMS runs," he said, but described the reduction as progress.

Board members asked about forecasting future call-volume growth; Gaylor said the department uses 20–25 years of trend data and predictive modeling and typically plans for a 3–10 percent annual increase. He told the board the department's planning scenarios generally use a 5–10 percent range and that the current year-to-date increase of about 8 percent aligns with those forecasts.

Gaylor also said road construction can affect response routing and that coordination with city public-works staff allows dispatchers to reroute resources when planned closures are announced. He noted some challenges remain when external agencies or utilities do not provide timely closure notices.