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Watertown council reviews fire department response data; chief flags 4,422 long calls and new ambulance tracking
Summary
The Watertown Common Council heard an October fire-department report showing 4,422 calls exceeded seven minutes year-to-date, discussed simultaneous-call impacts on response times, and learned the department will track primary/secondary ambulances (4151/4152) to better target staffing for 2026.
Watertown—s Common Council on Jan. 6 received a monthly report from the fire department that highlighted both improvements and continuing challenges in emergency response times.
The fire chief explained the department—s new response-time heat map and the color codes it uses: "blue is the response time that is less than 5 minutes and 20 seconds," green runs between 5 and 6 minutes, yellow/orange covers 6 to 7 minutes, and red marks responses over 7 minutes. The chief said that after filtering nonemergency calls there remained 4,422 calls year-to-date with response times over seven minutes, concentrated near the northeast hospital area and the west edge of town.
Councillors asked whether longer response times correlate with simultaneous calls, travel distance or staffing levels. The chief said simultaneous calls have been about "25 to 30%" of incidents and described operational impacts: when the engine company staffs an ambulance, crews must shift roles, which lengthens turnout and travel. To improve analysis, the department will log the first-out ambulance as 4151 and secondary calls as 4152 so managers can distinguish primary from secondary responses.
Councilmember Blankie praised turnout improvements, saying the turnout time has dropped "to 2 minutes and 3 seconds," and noted the overall response-zone time decreased from a high of 9:42 to 8:31. At the same time, Blankie and others cautioned that city response time showed a slight upward trend and urged continued attention to staffing and deployment decisions.
The chief said steps already taken include stabilizing staffing, hiring and training new personnel and increasing minimum staffing to seven to ensure crew and public safety. He also said the department will use the revised data labels going into 2026 to support requests for a dedicated ambulance and to target staffing where the heat map shows longer responses.
The council did not take formal action but directed staff to continue improving data tracking and to bring staffing recommendations as the 2026 planning process continues.
