Westminster fire chief outlines station shortfalls, growing medical calls as city begins 2026 budget work

Fire Chief Eric Burke told a Westminster town hall on the city’s 2026 budget process that the fire department has seen a substantial rise in calls for service over the last two decades and needs new or modernized facilities to maintain response standards.

“This increase is 128%,” Burke said, describing long‑term demand growth and telling residents the department exceeded 17,000 calls in 2023 and again in 2024. He said emergency medical calls now account for about two‑thirds of operations and that the department’s resident utilization rate has doubled from one call per 14 residents in 2004 to one call per seven residents in 2024.

The chief outlined two geographic service gaps — in the Orchard area in the north and along Westminster Boulevard in central Westminster — that the department cannot reliably cover within the four‑minute travel time commonly used in the emergency services industry. To address those gaps, Burke said the department has identified the need for two additional stations, which he referred to as Fire Station 7 (central) and Fire Station 8…