West Chester fire department reports 12% rise in responses; false alarms surge

Assistant Fire Chief Justin McClure told West Chester Borough Council that the fire department responded to 1,786 calls in 2024, a 12% increase from 2023, and that volunteers logged more than 15,000 hours of training.

The increase appears broad-based rather than tied to a single cause. "The increase in call volume is up across the board across all our responses — it's not necessarily specific to one specific call type or one address," McClure said. He also said the department recorded about $2,000,000 in property loss and "almost $52,000,000 in jeopardy" for incidents categorized as fire loss in 2024.

Why it matters: higher call volume strains volunteer staffing and borough finances. McClure told council members that the rise is affecting service delivery and increasing wear-and-tear and operating costs on apparatus and personnel time.

McClure described several contributors discussed during the meeting: population growth in the borough and surrounding townships, shifts in 911-caller behavior, more development with multiunit buildings that commonly generate smoke-related alarms, and a rise in electrical failures linked to consumer lithium-ion batteries. "These lithium ion batteries that people are buying off of Amazon are not ... listed [by Underwriters Laboratories] as safe," he said, adding the county fire marshal is tracking electrical failures weekly.

On false alarms, McClure urged enforcement of billing ordinances. "One of them the borough is doing, we encourage all six municipalities and I think four of the six at this point are doing it, is to make sure that there are false fire alarm ordinances in place and that we are billing," he said. He explained billing and enforcement encourage property owners and property managers to fix recurring system problems rather than repeatedly triggering responses.

McClure also updated council on equipment: the department's ladder truck is disassembled and progress on repairs is slow. "It is disassembled and we are waiting on work to continue — progress is slow on that project," he said.

Council members pressed for more granular data to identify hotspots or call-type drivers; McClure said the volunteer department lacks bandwidth to do a detailed micro-level analysis and recommended a larger research project. "It would be a really great project for someone at the university to do as a thesis," he said. Councilmember Metrick later proposed exploring a recurring student internship or analyst partnership with West Chester University to provide data support to public safety agencies.

Ending: McClure said the trends are mirrored across the county and emphasized the toll on volunteers and municipal budgets. He urged enforcement of existing ordinances and broader collaboration to identify root causes and reduce repeat responses.