It’s been a busy and challenging year for the fire department

The annual fire department report was recently presented to the city council and mayor. One of the pressing concerns in the department is the age of its truck fleet.

By Charles Sercombe
If you were a landlord or business owner in 2022, you probably noticed something.
A visit from the city’s fire marshal, coming by to do an inspection.
According to the annual report by the Fire Department, for 2022 the increase in inspections shot up by a whopping 402 percent.
In 2021, there were 301 inspections, and last year, there were 1,513.
Why this sudden increase?
According to Fire Chief Matthew Wyszczelski’s report, which was presented to the city council last week, it’s because the department upgraded its technology, thanks to a grant.
The department also noted an uptick in calls received, which ranged from actual fires to false alarms, to other issues, and went from 747 in 2021 to 949 in 2022.
The yearly average is 898 calls.
There were seven incidents of severe fire damage and/or injuries to persons last year.
Hamtramck normally has, at most, six firefighters on call per shift. That’s less than half of what’s recommended by national standards of having at least 17 firefighters respond to a fire.
Fortunately, however, Hamtramck still has an automatic aid agreement with both Detroit and Highland Park that allows a proper number of firefighters to be on the scene.
That agreement means firefighters from those cities will respond to a fire here. Hamtramck, in turn, answers calls to those cities within a certain boundary.
Detroit gave a helping hand to Hamtramck 225 times last year, which is slightly higher than the year before that.
Hamtramck, on the other hand, provided aid to Detroit 28 times.
Highland Park came to Hamtramck 17 times.
The department is facing one huge, and expensive, hurdle: its trucks and other vehicles are old, and will be needed to be replaced.
The oldest truck is 27 years old. Three other trucks are 11 or more years old.
An older fleet also means more repair costs. Last year, over $35,000 was spent on keeping the trucks in running shape.
The cost of a new fire truck is about $300,000 and up, and they take several months to be built.
At this time, there is no budget for ordering a new truck. The department will most likely have to win a grant to cover the cost.
On the department’s wish list is to bring back ambulance service, something which some residents have recently demanded when the city’s ambulance contractor failed to respond to calls because its ambulance was already on another call.
Next week, we’ll have the annual report by the Police Department. Spoiler alert: the city’s