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By NOAH WORTHAM | Staff Writer

ALABASTER – The Alabaster Fire Department has released its annual incident report shedding light on the services and safety it brought to Alabaster in 2023.

The Alabaster Fire Department had a busy year in 2023 and responded to close to 4,500 calls during the 12-month period.

“We had a really good year,” AFD Fire Chief Tim Love said. “We answered more calls than we ever have in the past.”

There were 4,451 total incidents during 2023 with 1,383 total patients transported.

The AFD keeps track of data on a monthly basis and the AFD looks at how many calls it receives with the objective of looking at what the next step for the growth of the department is.

“As the city grows, population increases, you see demographic changes and age and things like that in different parts of the city,” Love said. “We know that there will come a time (in) the next five to six years where we will have to open up another station to be able to maintain response times.”

In continuing to handle the growth of Alabaster, the AFD also can rely on mutual aid from local municipalities—of which saw 148 instances during the course of 2023.

“Us, Calera, Pelham and Helena—we’re in an automatic aid program,” Love said. “Any structure fire that we’re dispatched to automatically get an additional company from one of those cities.”

The department also lent aid of its own to surrounding municipalities during incidents—of which the department saw a total of 82 Mutual Aid Given Incidents in 2023.

According to Love, the department saw an increase in every category in 2023 with the exception of structure fires which saw a decrease. The AFD also didn’t see any significant injuries to personnel or any major equipment losses during the year.

“From all accounts, citizens are pleased with the services we’re providing and we’re looking for ways to increase that in any way that we can,” Love said.

One way the Alabaster Fire Department looks to boost its service in the future is through the deployment of an ambulance transport program.

“We’re moving forward (with) that in hopes that we’ll be ready to operate fully in 2025,” Love said.

The following is a breakdown of incidents by apparatus:

• Engine 11 – 1610
• Engine 12 – 1303
• Engine 13 – 1783
• Tower 19 – 286
• Batt – 10

The following is a breakdown of incidents by type and code:

• 100 Fire – 121
• 200 Explosion/overpressure – 6
• 300 Emergency medical service – 2599
• 400 Hazardous condition – 82
• 500 Service call – 821
• 600 Good intent – 556
• 700 False alarm – 256
• 800 Natural/weather – 8
• 900 Special incident – 2