Eagle Pass Fire Department inundated with Emergency Response Calls in the Month of December
By: Jose G. Landa©
The City of Eagle Pass Fire Department is on course to surpass its Emergency Call Responses record in 2013 according to public records. Currently, the Eagle Pass Fire Department has responded to over 6,100 emergency calls surpassing last year’s total of 6,005 of which 3,875 were within the City of Eagle Pass and another 2,130 emergency calls were from the County of Maverick.
During the first ten months of 2013, the Eagle Pass Fire Department had responded to 4,943 emergency calls, which 3,143 were in the City of Eagle Pass and another 1,800 in the County. The unofficial number of emergency calls for the month of December 2013, which will not be officially reported until January 2014, is estimated to be over 1,100 emergency calls, a one month record.
The 1,100 emergency calls in the month of December 2013 (1,100) will almost triple the total amount of calls compared to the month of December 2012, which had only 420 emergency calls, of which 280 calls were in the City of Eagle Pass and 140 calls in the County. Overall, the month of December 2013 saw a spike of close to 36 emergency calls per day during the 30 days period compared to 14 emergency calls per day during the month of December 2012, a significant increase.
During the two year period of 2012 and 2013, the Eagle Pass Fire Department averaged close to 18 emergency calls per day. In this same two year period, the Eagle Pass Fire Department is providing fire protection and emergency response services with a staff of only 42 Fire Fighters and EMT’s, five (5) Fire Fighters’ Management Officers, and 20 Volunteer Fire Fighters. On average, there are 16 Fire Fighters working per shift in the City of Eagle Pass, which is broken down into 24 hour shifts and a two day off period.
According to the National Fire Protection Agency recommendations, a city should have one Fire Station for every 10,000 people living within the boundaries of a city. According to the U.S. Census of 2010, Maverick County has a population of 56,000 persons. If one were to follow the National Fire Protection Agency recommendation, this would mean that the City of Eagle Pass would need five or six Fire Stations to adequately serve the fire protection and emergency response needs of both the City of Eagle Pass and Maverick County. Currently, the City of Eagle Pass has three Fire Stations. The City of Eagle Pass is building a new Fire Station and Training Center on South Monroe Street near the Second International Bridge which will be adjacent to the new City of Eagle Pass Police Department Headquarters in the old National Guard Armory Building.
With a total of over 56,000 residents in Maverick County and close to 70,000 people visiting and traversing our community on any given day due to border crossings and tourists, including the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino, highlights the importance of the City of Eagle Pass and Maverick County’s needs regarding fire protection and emergency response services. Both Eagle Pass and Maverick County will continue to grow and economic development projects such as increased highway traffic, railroad traffic, oil and gas drilling and waste wells, the Dos Republicas Coal Partnership Eagle Pass Mine (open surface coal mine), the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino and Hotel, will require more Fire Stations and a larger Fire Fighter force in the community to serve the needs of a growing community.