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Show Fire District examines 1989 statistics By SCOTT SUMMERILL The South Davis Fire District (SDFD) boasted an average four minute response time to the Board of Directors during its 1989 Annual An-nual Report last Monday. SDFD Chief Brent Argyle told the board the response time was an average taken from 1506 calls received by the district during the last year of the decade. "Our ultimate goal is three minutes,' min-utes,' he said. "But, if we can hold it to four, we're pretty happy." Argyle explained the most criti cal need for the three minute response re-sponse time is in calls for medical assistance involving cardiac arrest. "If oxygen is cut off for more than three minutes " he explained, "there can be irreversible damage." ' Among the 1506 calls received in 1989, Argyle reported 54 structure struc-ture fires, 1055 medical calls, 137 grass and rubbish fires, 40 vehicle fires, 5 1 hazardous materials calls, 18 miscellaneous fires and 151 others. He said the high number of calls classified as others is partly due to false alarms, which are included in-cluded in the category. entations and discussing the pros and cons of each, the board voted against the Volunteer Fireman's Insurance Services in favor of the present agency. With the decision, the board elected to look into pollution pol-lution control coverage and coverage cover-age for the Ambulance Association. Associa-tion. The pollution control issue stems back to the handling of hazardous materials. If the district responds to that type of call and does something some-thing wrong, or fails to do some-" some-" thing they were supposed to do, the policy would cover any lawsuits aimed at the district by residents and landowners. The number of calls reported in 1989 is up by 224 from 1988 figures fig-ures of 1282. Argyle blamed the increase on community growth. "Our counties are growing," he said. "As they do, we're just going to get more calls. We're looking at just under four and half calls per day in the district." The total dollar loss from fires in 1989 was reported as $461,290. Of the types of calls received by the SDFD, the board expressed increasing concern over the number num-ber of hazardous waste calls. The report showed 5 1 such calls in 1989, up from 45 in 1988. "It's a real issue," Argyle said. "Especially in our area with two railroads, chemical plants and others. oth-ers. It's also a very expensive task." According to Argyle, training personnel and furnishing the necessary nec-essary equipment for hazardous material disposal is one of the most costly facets of the districts workload. work-load. Another of the financial concerns of the SDFD is with fire fighting equipment. According to Argyle, the district has several outdated and worn out trucks. "If we have to respond to a call where there aren't any water resources, re-sources, we have to take out the big pumper," he said. "But, the brakes are bad and it's too old to find parts." Argyle said there are other vehicles ve-hicles in the district which have required extensive repairs. "They're just getting old, and they're costing a fortune to keep up," he said. In other business, the board heard presentations from two insurance agencies. The districts current .coverage has already expired. However, the present agent, Olympus Insurance Agency, I bonded the policy over to provide (continued coverage until the board could vote. After hearing the pres- |