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Salisbury Fire Department reports rising call volume, opioid and skilled‑nursing work and accepts state grant increase
Summary
The fire chief told council that calls for service rose about 8.9% year‑over‑year in the first half of 2025; EMS calls are a principal driver, skilled‑nursing calls accounted for roughly 12.8% of EMS volume, and council accepted by consensus an increase to a prior state grant to cover additional allowable indirect costs.
The Salisbury Fire Department reported to the City Council on July 28 that total calls for service rose in the first half of 2025 and that EMS demand is stretching the department’s availability during peak daytime hours.
The fire chief told council that total calls increased by 723 calls (about an 8.9% rise) compared with the previous year; of those additional calls, 155 were fire‑related and 565 were EMS calls. The department uses “unit responses” (individual vehicle responses per incident) to measure wear‑and‑tear and operational cost; one incident frequently generates multiple unit responses when engines and trucks both respond.
EMS and system pressures: the chief said EMS call volume has increased relative to recent trends (the department had previously averaged smaller year‑over‑year increases) and that unavailability of units during high‑demand hours has pushed average EMS unit response time slightly above six minutes. The department described multiple drivers for increased demand:…
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