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Fire-district rep warns of parade hazards as EMS calls hit record highs
Summary
Dan Fox told the council emergency medical calls now account for 61% of district service requests and that parade barricade failures and hostility toward responders have created safety concerns; Saugatuck fire staff demonstrated LUCAS CPR and i‑gel airway devices.
Dan Fox, the council’s representative to the Fire District Administrative Board, told the Saugatuck City Council on Dec. 23 that the district is handling record call volumes and that emergency medical calls now constitute roughly 61% of service requests.
Fox said Saugatuck accounts for about 23% of the district’s total calls. He reported improvements in ambulance response times under the district’s new Life EMS contract and described a recent cardiac-arrest chart that showed increased use of life‑saving equipment. Sergeant Riley Capel and Kevin Stevens from the Saugatuck Fire Department demonstrated a LUCAS automated CPR device and an i‑gel airway device during the meeting to illustrate how those tools support rapid response.
Fox warned that recent parade operations have exposed public-safety risks, saying footage showed near-accident incidents involving children and large vehicles and that some barricade setups were inadequate. He recounted an emergency response in which a fire officer encountered hostility from a nearby property owner; as a result, the fire board implemented standing orders to automatically dispatch law enforcement to future calls at that location. Fox urged the council and organizers to adopt safety measures similar to neighboring towns and said some fire personnel are reluctant to participate in parades under current conditions.
Fox also reported the fire board will add “First Monday” workshop meetings next year to address major topics without overloading regular meeting agendas; the board completed its annual financial audit, which he described as thorough. No formal council action was recorded on parade procedures at this meeting.
What happens next: the fire board plans to pursue additional workshops and coordination; council and staff have been made aware of public-safety concerns and the standing-order change relating to law enforcement dispatch.
