Chief Watkins of the Unified Fire Authority told the Riverton City Council that 2024 was the highest year on record for incidents in the city, with 2,168 incidents — a reported 7.49% increase from prior years — and emphasized the role of community risk reduction in lowering preventable calls.

“20 24 was the high watermark at 2,168 incidents within the city,” Chief Watkins said during his presentation, which covered fire and EMS responses, a monthly breakdown of calls, and a heat map showing call concentrations.

Chief Watkins reported that about half of the incident responses were Priority 1 (emergent) calls such as heart attacks and strokes that required advanced life-support (ALS) resources. He also said crews completed 441 basic business inspections during the year to gain situational awareness of buildings and responsible contacts, and that more complex inspections are handled by the fire marshal’s office.

The UFA report discussed incident types: medical responses (sick persons, falls, seizures), motor-vehicle accidents (68 reported), structure fires (10), outside rubbish fires and mobile property fires, and false alarms from system detectors. Chief Watkins noted the monthly and seasonal variability in calls and displayed a heat map of incident density across the city.

On Nov. 9, a garage fire resulted in two firefighters catching on fire due to gasoline exposure; Chief Watkins said the UFA conducts after-action processes including notification “blue sheets” and investigative “green sheets” to document what went well and what did not, and to identify lessons and corrective actions.

Council members asked about reducing nonemergent public-service calls, elevator issues in facilities that cause repeated responses, and possible outreach. Chief Watkins said UFA is building a community risk reduction portfolio intended to address root causes — for example, helping a resident procure a refrigerator for diabetic medication reduced repeated medical visits — and that the department planned to expand risk-reduction capacity.

Council member McKay asked whether more could be done to lower public-service calls; Watkins described efforts to identify repeat callers and to coordinate with city and social-service partners. Council member Hammond raised elevator reliability in assisted-living facilities; Chief Watkins said elevator complaints and accessibility issues would be addressed by the fire marshal’s office as part of their inspection portfolio.

No formal action was taken; council members thanked UFA for the report and discussed potential collaboration on community risk reduction and resident outreach.