As the City of Bridgeport continues to grow, so does the need for its emergency services. Last week, Bridgeport Fire Chief Phil Hart was able to show just that when he made his annual department head report to City Council.

 

“We had 2,397 calls for service last year,” said Hart.

 

The number is one that has continued to rise. Ironically, Hart said the calls for service have gone up since the arrival of United Hospital Center.

 

“We’ve seen a 22 percent increase in calls since United Hospital Center relocated to the city (in 2010),” said Hart. “At the same time, we’ve had a 14 percent staffing increase.”

 

Why the reason for the jump and what does it have to do with UHC?

 

While a lot of the call increase is a result of the city’s growth, Hart said the doctor’s offices that have sprung up around the UHC complex is the primary reason. He said that if someone is at a doctor’s appointment and has a medical situation the office is required to make a call to 911.

 

“That’s standard. We show up and do a transport about the equivalent of a few blocks,” said Hart.

 

While Hart didn’t paint the situation as bad or good, he did say the relocation has provided one positive thing for his staff when going out on emergency medical calls. And that is time.

 

“The transition time from a call when UHC was in Clarksburg to get back into service was 80 minutes. It’s dropped to 50 minutes,” said Hart.

 

There were many other parts of the report that drew the interest of Council and those gathered during Hart’s presentation. The chief pointed out that the still relatively new Bridgeport substation near UHC and the entrance to the FBI facility is occasionally not staff due to personnel being on call.

 

“After 4 p.m. there are two people there …,” said Hart. “When you total up all the hours where no one was there it comes out to the station being unmanned 27.5 days this past year. That’s not straight time, but what the hours total.”

 

Hart went over multiple areas, including the training done annually by the staff. He also talked about new equipment and procedures that his staff is involved with and continually heaped praise on them for their efforts to serve the city and to continue efforts on the education front.

 

One thing Hart brought up that is different is the number of structure fires the department is dealing with. There have been years where there have been just a couple the department has had to address, but that’s been changing.

 

“Last year we saw a significant increase in structure fires of about 50 percent in our first due area,” said Hart of the area that includes property outside of the city limits. “Roughly, we had 20 structure fires this past year. That’s a lot for us.”

 

Hart said his staff is also dealing with more drug-related medical calls. In particular, he said the situation often arises during calls for accidents.

 

“With the accidents we respond to you’re seeing more situations where the drivers are impaired from drug use that leads to the accidents,” said Hart.

 

Hart was the latest department head to give a summary to Council. Every department head will give a report to the city’s governing body during the year.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows Bridgeport Fire personnel taking care of a situation in 2018 at BHS, while the second photo is of a car fire at the Meadowbrook Mall. Bottom photo shows training that took place in March of last year.