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Lakeville Fire Department reports 2024 call volume, staffing changes and training expansion
Summary
Chief Meyer presented the department’s 2024 annual report to the Lakeville City Council, summarizing call volume, transition to a hybrid staffing model, a SAFER grant award for additional full‑time firefighters and community outreach and training activities.
Lakeville Fire Chief Meyer presented the department’s 2024 annual report at the Feb. 18 City Council meeting, outlining incident volume, staffing changes and training initiatives from the past year.
“From an emergency response, so incidents in 2024, we had 3,614 calls,” Meyer said, reporting that emergency medical services made up the majority of the workload. The chief said EMS responses accounted for roughly 68% of calls; fires were about 3% of incidents, with 94 fires in 2024 including 29 building fires.
Meyer told the council the department received a SAFER grant for 15 full‑time firefighter positions and is transitioning from a strictly paid‑on‑call model to a hybrid department with a mix of full‑time and paid‑on‑call personnel. He said the department’s duty crew model and addition of a full‑time staffed vehicle (a “duty crew truck”) has reduced the number of call‑outs for paid‑on‑call personnel.
The chief said the department responded to numerous simultaneous incidents in 2024 (531 incidents occurring back‑to‑back in sequences), highlighted expanded use of a 14‑member drone team for searches and water rescues and reported more than 8,200 hours of department training for the year.
Meyer highlighted fire prevention work, citing roughly 1,002 commercial inspections, 125 mobile food unit inspections and partnerships such as a mobile‑home smoke alarm installation with the American Red Cross. He also described wellness and recruitment efforts: the department hired seven firefighters in 2024, completed station remodels and required annual or biennial fitness and medical testing for personnel.
Meyer closed by thanking the council for support and invited questions; council members thanked him for leading the department through a period of change.
