A combination of a surge in emergency medical calls and summer thunderstorms kept firefighters and EMTs for the West Grove Fire Company busy on Friday, August 2, 2024. And that trend continued all weekend as well.
Starting before 8:00am and stretching until after 11:00pm Friday, WGFC first responders ran 29 emergencies from cardiac arrest to house fires, from wires calls to automatic alarms, from seizures to tree fires. Here is a summary of calls by time, nature, and municipality:
746am EMS New London 757am EMS West Grove 958am Fire/EMS Penn 1001am EMS Penn 1009am EMS Penn 1050am EMS London Grove 1225pm EMS Avondale 256pm EMS Londonderry 300pm Fire Franklin 316pm EMS Oxford 406pm EMS Franklin 420pm Fire Penn 430pm Fire London Grove 439pm EMS Penn 445pm Fire Penn 500pm Fire London Grove 508pm Fire London Grove 509pm Fire London Grove 523pm Fire Kennett 553pm Fire West Grove 603pm EMS Oxford 610pm EMS Penn 754pm Fire London Grove 901pm Fire Franklin 939pm EMS Penn 1030pm Fire Avondale 1033pm EMS New Garden 1034pm Fire Penn 1114pm EMS West Marlboro
It should be noted that many of these emergencies overlapped, with EMS units running simultaneous emergencies and fire units responding to different emergency situations across a wide geographic area. This is particularly true during the arrival of a significant thunderstorm, with a wave of fire-related dispatches between 4 and 6pm, that stretched into the evening. EMS crews had multiple calls as well at the same time in the 10am hour.
29 calls in one day is one WGFC's busiest days in memory, although not isolated. This has been a busy period for the fire company, and we are proud that our crews can step up to meet the needs of this community.
Update: Not only was Friday busy for WGFC EMS, but that trend continued over the weekend. Over the period Friday - Sunday, West Grove Fire Company ambulances were requested for emergency calls 46 times. And, continuing a trend, many of these calls overlapped -- meaning our crews were handling multiple emergencies at the same time. That was 23 primary calls, 19 times there were two calls at once, and four times there three calls at once. Well done EMS team! |