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By NOAH WORTHAM | Managing Editor 

ALABASTER – The Alabaster Fire Department released its incident totals report for 2024 which indicated a busy year for the paramedics and firefighters that serve Shelby County’s largest city.

The Alabaster Fire Department oversaw 4,597 total incidents in 2024 which was an increase from the previous year’s 4,451.

“We were busier,” Alabaster Fire Chief Tim Love said. “We’re seeing growth all the way around.”

A full breakdown of incidents for each apparatus at the department’s disposal for 2024 is as follows:

• Engine 11 – 1,729 incidents
• Engine 12 – 1,408 incidents
• Engine 13 – 1,909 incidents
• Tower 19 – 418 incidents
• Batt 10 – 1,684 incidents

Throughout 2024, the AFD saw 1,348 total patients transported with 1,289 private ambulance transports and 59 AFD transports from when the department began testing the new in-house service. With the official introduction of ambulance transport services in Alabaster on Jan. 1, Love is expecting to see a significant change in numbers as residents utilize the new services.

“We know that next year we will see that total plus some more,” Love said. “All the data gave us some idea of where we would go (and) what the cost would be.”

The new ambulatory service program was made possible by Shelby County, which provided the capital to pay for transport vehicles for both the Alabaster Fire Department and Pelham Fire Department. In return, both municipalities agreed to provide staffing, personnel and to purchase equipment.

“We fully understand that this will not be a money-making venture, but it will be a service increase,” Love said. “Then the collections will allow us to offset some of that cost. It will definitely not pay for itself, but it certainly will help offset the cost of operation. It’s about service. It’s no different than (how) we provide fire and police coverage already. This just happens to be a service that can collect back from insurance to help offset that cost.”

Over the course of 2024, the Alabaster Fire Department was involved in 48 mutual aid incidents with other nearby municipalities. The city of Alabaster has mutual aid agreements with Pelham, Helena, Calera and part of Montevallo which means that, in the event of an emergency situation, the departments provide backup to each other.

“So, 48 times we went to other cities to help them out whether it was fires (or) medical calls,” Love said. “That’s the way of the world. We all have to work together to make this system work.”

The following is a breakdown of all incidents by type and code for the Alabaster Fire Department in 2024:

• Fire – 99
• Explosion/overpressure – 5
• Emergency medical service – 2,642
• Hazardous condition – 74
• Service call- 878
• Good intent – 593
• False alarm – 291
• Natural weather – 12
• Special incident 3

As the department continues to serve Alabaster citizens, Love highlighted the department’s biggest focus for 2025.

“I think the biggest thing in 2025 for us is going to be collecting the data for the transport service,” Love said. “(It’s) a totally new service for us and for Pelham in our mutual aid agreements. So, there will be a lot of learning there (and) areas that we can improve. That’s probably going to be the thing we’re going to watch the closest.”

As the department continues to monitor its newest service in 2025, Love shared that it will also continue to work on training and developing its hires with its mandatory paramedic school program.

“We’ve got a lot of people in school right now,” Love said. “They’re doing really good. We’ve had several graduate over the past year. We still got another eight or so that are somewhere in the process, and that’s going to continue. We’re still in really good shape for paramedics here, but we want to grow that number. It’s a work in progress, but we’re seeing a lot of positives out of it. We know our program’s working; our people are doing really good and that means it’s going to be a better service to the citizens.”

Those interested in keeping up to date with the Alabaster Fire Department may follows its official Facebook page at Facebook.com/AlabasterFire.