The Westfield Fire Department responded to 856 fire calls and 1,549 emergency medical service calls in the first half of 2024.
WFD Chief Rob Gaylor presented the department’s midyear report to the Board of Public Works and Safety in July. He said the department averaged 13.3 responses per day from Jan. 1 to July 1, with an average turnout time of 1 minute and 19 seconds.
Gaylor said emergency services social worker Jamie Pristasch ended the second quarter of 2024 with 74 referrals and 82 contacts with people having challenges.
“We’re one of a very few departments in the state that actually has a licensed social worker on staff,” Gaylor said. “The reason that we do that is, it’s cut down on a lot of our nonemergency medical runs. A lot of times we run into, with assistance from the police department, someone who is having a mental problem. A lot of people don’t know how to get help, and so they might fake an injury or a cardiac event. Really, what they want is someone to talk to. They need resources to help them out with depression or anxiety or PTSD.”
Pristasch began with the department at the end of 2023, adding critical and valuable services to the department, Gaylor said.
“We had no idea the things that we were missing, the resources that are available in our community but also in Hamilton County and surrounding counties, until we brought Jamie in,” he said. “A lot of times these folks would call repeatedly, two or three times a week and we would go out and help them. This has actually cut down a lot of our repeat customers, if you will. It’s less expensive to send Jamie out in an SUV to sit down and talk with the individual for 15 or 20 or 45 minutes, versus a $1 million firetruck with a paramedic and an officer and a driver and a back-stepper that is now out of service. This model has been very beneficial to us.”
Gaylor also said the WFD added more than 140 users to its Community Connect program.
Community Connect is a free platform provided by the WFD that allows residents to share critical information with aid first responders and emergency response personnel when responding to a call for help, such as whether there is a fire suppression system, if residents of the home have mobility or medical issues, if there are pets in the home and emergency contact information.
“It’s a way for residents in our community to share information with public safety as we respond,” Gaylor said. “Things that public safety folks need to know prior to getting to (that call).”
Register for the free service at communityconnect.io/info/in-westfield.
View the WFD midyear report at westfield.in.gov/egov/documents/1721412770_09754.pdf.
