Chatham County fire chief outlines multi-year apparatus replacement plan and spotlights behavioral health response

Chatham County Fire Chief Vickers told the Board of Commissioners on March 27 that the department will phase in new aerials, engines and support vehicles to replace an aging fleet and reduce maintenance-driven downtime, and that the county’s Behavioral Health Unit has become a regular conduit to care for residents with mental-health and substance-use crises.

"We just moved from an old system to a new records system," Chief Vickers said, describing a recent transition that he said will yield more reliable data in future reports. He reported that, for the period covered in the presentation, the department logged 777 fire calls and 1,249 total responses and that medical incidents make up roughly 41 percent of calls.

The chief highlighted Engine 305 as the department's only ALS‑capable engine, reporting 147 ALS responses for that unit. He said the Behavioral Health Unit (BHU) recorded 325 calls over the reporting window,…