BEACON (1 January 2008) - With each year seemingly becoming busier and busier, the city has recorded it's busiest year ever with a total of 1,636 runs in 2007, a 10% increase in total call volume. With the department taking on new tasks, such as non-emergency vehicle lock outs as a community service, it has seen a large increase in run volume. The busiest month of the year was in April with 233 alarms, the single busiest month in department history. April had nearly double the run volume of an average month, mainly due to the flooding rain storm that devastated the area resulting in about 100 alarms in just a few days alone.

Incident categories were just about split 50/50 in increases/ decreases. Fires and False Alarms were both up over 12% each, while Service Calls showed the largest increase of over 391% due to the basement pump outs in April and the new duty of vehicle lock outs. Over pressures were down 50%, Hazardous Conditions were down 36%, and most surprisingly Rescue/ EMS calls were down about 2%, the City's number one busiest category which stayed just under the 4-digit mark at 999 for the first time in 3 years.

Most calls were also in the city. 98% of the calls in 2007 were all incidents within the city limits. A 10% increase in call volume, 1,618 alarms were answered in the city through the course of the year. 2% of the calls, 18 runs, were in neighboring fire districts. Calls to assist other districts was down by 5% over the previous year. Also in 2007, Engine 33-12 became the busiest apparatus in the city, taking the title from Tower Ladder 33-45 mainly due to it be removed from day-time EMS calls. Rescue 33-55 also saw the largest increase in call volume with an increase of 81%, recording 222 alarms, the most ever for this apparatus.

2008 marks the 10th year anniversary of BeaconFD.org, one of the areas oldest fire department websites has been online since October of 1998. With nearly 90,000 visitors since then, the site has kept the community as well as the world informed of the fire department. The site was not only one of the first fire department websites in the area, but also was one of the first to feature a virtual tour of fire apparatus. A special section will be released around the 10th anniversary of the site to give a history of the website, as well as its progress through the years.