Camden Fire Department Chief Ron Nash presented his annual report to the Camden City Council during the body's Tuesday, Feb. 14 meeting.
"Last year was a productive year for the fire department. I would like to assure the council that we continue to move in a positive direction and serve the needs of the citizens of Camden," Nash said.
In 2022, the CFD answered 624 National Fire Reporting System (NFIRS) requests for service, which the report Nash presented states is a 52% decrease from 2021.
Additionally, the department responded to 1,079 non-NFIRS requests, which was also down from the 2021 number of 2,630.
The fire department responded to 111 fire calls, of which 30 were structure fires. These numbers are up 9%, but structure fires were down 19%.
The department responded to 39 requests for service that resulted in property loss, a number Nash said was down from the 44 property loss calls in 2021. The calls represented $2,467,925 in property with an estimated loss of $552,875.
Nash stated the department provided response within an average of 3.12 minutes, which was slightly higher than previous years.
The department substantially increased education hours to the public, providing fire education to 3,249 individuals last year, compared to 513 in 2021.
"Public education and fire inspections have always been an important part of our service that we provide for the community," Nash said. "It allows us an opportunity to educate the public and hopefully reduce fire losses, injuries and even death."
The department logged 2,651 training hours through the Arkansas Fire Training Academy.
Nash also noted that the department retains its ISO rating of 2 and that a new fire truck that arrived at the end of December will soon be dedicated to the memories of retired Captains Randy Stover and Earl Banks who both passed away last year.