Fire chief reports 6,600+ incidents in 2025; ISO rating improves to Class 2

Fire Chief Anthony Mejia presented the Lincoln Fire Department's 2025 annual report to the City Council, saying the department responded to more than 6,600 incidents last year and expects call volumes to top 7,000 in 2026 as the city grows. "Last year, we ran over 6,600 incidents," Mejia said, noting about 4,200 were emergency medical calls and roughly 150 were fire incidents.

Mejia said the department saved or protected an estimated $98,000,000 in threatened assets last year while reporting about $365,000 in actual asset loss. "We had over $98,000,000 in assets threatened last year," he said, adding that firefighters prevented any complete structure losses citywide during the year highlighted in his presentation.

The chief highlighted workforce and policy milestones: a new 600-page operations and policy manual, a completed fire master plan, roughly 8,800 training hours logged, recent promotions and hires, and two high-tenure retirements. He also described mutual-aid deployments to major California wildfires and said the department frequently volunteers to support out-of-county responses.

Council members asked about mutual-aid balance and response-time targets. Mejia said the department aims for a roughly seven-minute on-scene window for emergency responses but acknowledged variability depending on call type and gear requirements. He also said moving the whole emergency-response cadre to ALS capabilities should help equalize mutual-aid exchanges over time.

Mejia closed by thanking the council, city staff and mutual-aid partners for their support and reiterated the department's goals for 2026, including expanding ALS services. The council offered the chief and staff praise and a mix of technical questions about response metrics and coordination with private ambulance services.