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Lake Elmo Fire Department presents 2024 annual report showing rising calls and staffing growth
Summary
Chief Kalis presented the department’s 2024 annual report: calls rose to 1,137, the roster has grown to 37 personnel, medical calls were the largest category and the department joined the Washington County Fire Rescue Dive Team.
Lake Elmo Fire Chief Kalis presented the department’s 2024 annual report to the City Council, reporting growth in staffing and an increase in calls for service.
Chief Kalis said the department’s roster is now 37 personnel, including career and paid-on-call staff, up from roughly 20 when he started. The department responded to 1,137 calls in 2024, up from 1,047 in 2023. Medical/EMS responses were the largest category (about 680 calls cited in discussion), and the department arrived ahead of ambulances on roughly 91% of shared-response medical calls. Fire responses numbered 58 in 2024 and included 31 structure incidents; 93 vehicle-rescue incidents included nine technical extrications.
Chief Kalis and Assistant Chief Anthony Sotto discussed geography and response times: alarm-to-en-route average was about 1.25 minutes and travel time averaged 7.49 minutes in 2024, figures strongly influenced by Lake Elmo’s 25-plus square-mile geography and the location of ambulances outside the city. The department reported continuing mutual/automatic-aid relationships with neighboring departments and described the addition of Woodbury to confirmed-structure-fire responses.
The report described training (4,212 personnel hours in 2024), fire-prevention activity and a newly formed dive-team participation: Lake Elmo joined the Washington County Fire Rescue Dive Team because of local water-rescue exposure across 33 lakes. The department also purchased new equipment (boat and utility vehicle), installed a decontamination/gear-washer extractor and received about $14,879 in state training-reimbursement awards for fiscal 2024. Chief Kalis said the department will launch community CPR/AED outreach and a smoke and carbon-monoxide alarm replacement program later in 2025.
Council members thanked the chief for the report and asked operational questions about response times and overlapping calls; the presentation drew no formal council vote.
