Port Washington fire, EMS report record call volumes, new inspections database and public-safety building progress

Port Washington fire and emergency medical services officials told the Police and Fire Commission on Aug. 11 that the departments have seen record call volumes this summer, have rebuilt their fire-inspection database and reported construction progress on the city’s public safety building.

Fire leaders said June set a record for fire calls and July surpassed it, and EMS calls rose from about 99 in a prior month to roughly 160 in the most recent month. Officials attributed part of the EMS increase to higher paramedic-intercept requests as neighboring agencies faced staffing challenges.

The department described mutual-aid deployments during an extreme storm over the weekend: Ozaukee County crews assisted the City of Milwaukee, which recorded 641 calls in the same time period; Port Washington’s ladder truck was deployed downtown and handled 10 calls while Milwaukee units were backfilled. During the local storm period the city logged 19 fire calls (10 of them in Milwaukee, per the report) and six additional EMS calls handled locally.

Staffing changes were also reported. Two EMS personnel submitted resignations: AMT Dina Lobs and Advanced EMT Timothy Lund. The department said it hired two part-time personnel who had completed ride-alongs and were expected to begin onboarding in about two weeks: Firefighter EMT Bridal Wicker and Firefighter EMT Gavin Hanneman.

Fire staff said they have finished building a new inspections database on ImageTrend for about 650 occupancies and planned to start inspections with school buildings. Inspectors will email inspection reports to property owners and, for easily corrected items, allow owners to respond with photos to avoid a return visit. A commissioner noted a change in the city ordinance that alters inspection frequency; staff said inspections are once a year except for high-hazard properties.

The department also reported rebuilding mass-casualty boxes and said the new public safety building was under active construction with walls for the fire department being erected and some flooring poured. Officials showed drone photos and architect images taken on-site.

Fire staff described local flood impacts from recent torrential downpours: storm runoff caused silt and mud to plug silt screens on storm drains at a construction site, trees fell on the bike trail, some backyards and a few houses experienced water intrusion, and the wastewater plant temporarily lost power but generators limited impacts. The fire department also used its drone with thermal imaging at a barn fire in neighboring Cedarburg to guide overhaul operations.

Commissioners asked about staffing and mutual aid; fire staff said they had called in full-time staff and paid-on-call volunteers during the busy weekend and that some paid-on-call members staffed an engine to keep responses covered while other apparatus were out on mutual-aid duty.

No formal votes were taken on the items reported in the fire and EMS presentation.