VIDEO: Houston County’s boomtown growth is keeping first responders on their toes.
Fire and EMA crews say calls are slowly climbing each year as the county’s population and development continue to rise.
“It’s busier than ever,” said Lt. Kendell Marzoll.
Marzoll has been with Houston County Fire and EMA for 16 years. He says since he started in 2009, the calls have seen a drastic increase.
“From then to now I mean we probably ran 2,000 calls, to now running over 5,000 calls a year,” Marzoll said.
The department is on track to run 5,300 calls this year. Marzoll says he’s run 1,500 of them.
“If you’re heavily populated, you’re gonna run more calls,” Marzoll said.
He says they couldn’t handle that number of calls without the increase in staff.
Fire Chief and EMA Director Chris Stoner says they are finishing training of nine new firefighters. That will let them staff all eight fire stations around the clock.
WMAZ-TV CBS 13 Macon