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Salisbury Fire Chief reports rising calls, above-average resuscitation rate and program expansions
Summary
Fire Chief Rob Frampton told the council that combined fire and EMS calls rose about 4–5% year-over-year through Q3 2025, with EMS increases outside city limits, a 23.2% community discharge rate after cardiac arrest resuscitations and program updates including opioid outreach, buprenorphine inductions and a restarted cadet program.
Fire Chief Rob Frampton briefed the council during the Nov. 10 work session on the Salisbury Fire Department's third-quarter 2025 statistics.
Frampton said the department recorded a roughly 4–5% increase in calls compared with 2024, with EMS accounting for most of the rise and many of those calls occurring outside city limits. He noted that the department has absorbed call-volume increases with the same staffing levels as 2022 and that response-unit availability has declined as minutes between calls shortened.
On cardiac arrests, the department responded to 188 calls in the first nine months of the year, attempted resuscitation on 112 and reported 26 community discharges — a 23.2% survival-to-discharge rate that Frampton said exceeds the national average and meets the department’s internal target of 20%.
Frampton described program work on opioid identification and response: a state grant funded outreach and a buprenorphine induction program that has completed five inductions so far (more than initially expected). The Swift team currently follows 35 patients in weekly outreach and the falls-prevention program has seen 94 patients since launch. He said the fire marshal’s office had inspected over 1,700 commercial occupancies and generated nearly $500,000 in revenue year-to-date.
Frampton also reported EMS billing figures: $7.3 million billed year-to-date with net collections close to $1.6 million, and said the department is pursuing Medicaid underpayment reimbursement (estimated around $500,000) with the state. He announced the cadet program restart and invited council and residents to a fire-marshall media day demonstration.
In Q&A, a council member asked how many of the 29 fires investigated were suspicious; Frampton estimated 5–10 cases were turned over to the state fire marshal's office for potential criminal investigation.
What’s next: the department will continue outreach, pursue reimbursement efforts with the state and monitor call-volume trends that may relate to future staffing and funding discussions.
