TACOMA, Wash. — A trend of has emerged that could be cause for concern for Tacoma Fire, but it’s not just the increased calls that’re concerning, it’s what first responders are being called to do.
“We’ve noticed an uptick in our call volume. Notably in 2022, we responded to over 49,000 incidents,” Tacoma Fire spokesperson Joe Meinecke said. “Of those 49,000 incidents, eighty-percent, or about 40,000, were for emergency medical service.”
Last year isn’t an anomaly in this regard.
For the past few years, a significant majority of Tacoma Fire’s calls were medically related for incidents such as motor vehicle collisions, people who’ve fallen and hurt themselves, or having difficulty breathing. Meinecke said that while fighters are trained to handle medical emergencies, the fire department only has so much to work with.
“The obvious concern is that we won’t have enough resources to help everybody or our resources will be committed and we’ll have a significant event happen simultaneously,” he explained.
But more resources could be on the horizon.
Tacoma City Council is putting together a plan to raise the EMS levy back up to $0.50 for every $1,000 of assessed property value. The levy fell to $0.32 due to higher property values since 2006.
The additional revenue could go to hiring additional firefighters, which could lower response times and increase capacity citywide, according to Tacoma Fire.
Meinecke said the additional revenue is long overdue and badly needed.
“It’s been since 2006 that we’ve had an EMS levy renewal before, or potentially before the community, and so that’s seventeen years,” he said. “That’s quite a long time and we’re at the point now where we really need to add additional resources.”
The levy lift will be presented to the public for a vote in April. If approved, it’ll go into effect next year.