In 2007, the Thibodaux Volunteer Fire Department responded to 290 fire alarms compared to 274 fire alarms in 2006 for an increase of 16 alarms.  There were a total of 5,044 member responses to these alarms for an average of 18 responders per alarm.   The average number of responders to the building fires was 47 responders.   Although there were only 5 working building fires during the year, it saddens us to report that three fatalities occurred during the year, all from the same fire.  143 of these alarms had a response time of 3 minutes or less.  The average response time for all alarms was 4.12 minutes.   A breakdown of the types of fire alarms is as follows: 

            Building fires                        5                        Fire - other                              17

            Vehicle fires                       14                       Smoke scare                            21

            Electrical fires                    28                       Good Intent                                4

            Flammables                       15                       Service calls                             18

            Cooking container             12                       Other calls                                 29

            Trash/Rubbish                   13                       Alarm malfunctions                    5

           Chemical                              1                        False alarms/Bomb scare         5

           Brush/grass                          3                       Unintentional alarm                100   

Of the above calls, 244 calls were in the City, which is 11 more than in 2006, 19 were in District 4, and 27 were to provide mutual aid to surrounding fire departments.                                                  

ANALYSIS OF RESCUE CALLS

The Rescue Squad responded to 54 rescue calls in 2007 compared to 67 in 2006.  These calls were for the following reasons.

                                                 Auto accident                       11

                                                 Medical assist                       25

                                                 Paged out - cancelled            2

                                                 Manpower for heavy lift        15

                                                 Threaten suicide                     1

Members of the department logged in 5,229.70 training hours compared to 4,879 training hours in 2006 and 4,258.60 in 2005.    This represents a significant increase in the number of training hours by members during the year over the number of training hours for the past two years.   Hopefully the improvements to the training center have helped increase training attendance as the types of training offered have become more diversified.

Each member is asked to increase their attendance at fires and training and to continue providing fire and rescue services to the area residents that is second to none.   Many thanks for a job well done.