Westfield Fire faces growing city and rising calls. Can it maintain its level of service?

The warning bells rang in a steady tone, breaking the quiet at Westfield City Hall.

As Fire Chief Rob Gaylor stood before the city council, Westfield firefighters at one of the city's three stations responded to another call for help.

A week later as Gaylor spoke with IndyStar for this story, the alarm sounded again at Fire Station 81, the department’s headquarters.

More:Westfield was fastest growing community in Indiana in 2021, IU analysis finds

“This is number 16 or 17 for our station today and they’ve only been on duty for 12 hours,” Gaylor told the city council at the public meeting in June.

It’s part of the job, for the bells to ring and firefighters to gear up and respond when someone calls with an emergency. But in fast-growing Westfield, the fire department's call volume is increasing so rapidly it's concerning the fire chief.

In 2021, Westfield firefighters responded to 4,400 calls and the city is on pace for 5,000 this year, Gaylor said.

Westfield Fire received more than 2,300 calls between January and June 2022. By contrast, the city saw just over 2,000 emergency calls more than a decade ago in all of 2011, according to Board of Public Works and Safety reports.

There is no real sign the call volume will slow down. More people are coming to Westfield as indicated by the number of residential construction permits submitted to the city, which have set record highs in 2020 and 2021. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, Westfield’s population was 46,410 people. Ten years earlier, the population was just over 30,000.

More:Westfield residential building permits are setting records. Here's what that means.

Gaylor said it’s not about the amount of people coming to Westfield, but the amount of risk increased population and density that brings city residents. A new apartment building with 1,100 people living in various units means more ovens, microwaves and toasters, Gaylor explained.

The city has made investments in the fire department in the past 10 years. The city broke ground in June off Ditch Road on a new $13 million headquarters and station to replace the existing Fire Station 81 on State Road 32. Fire Station 83 opened in 2012.

But Westfield Fire needs more stations and more employees to support the increasing demand for services in the city, or Westfield residents may see firefighters from other communities respond to city emergencies, Gaylor said. He plans to ask the Westfield City Council for a 16% increase in the department's budget for the 2023 fiscal year.

“If we don’t take a holistic approach to this, we could really run into some problems,” Gaylor said.

The impact of increasing calls

Gaylor took over as Westfield Fire Chief in January. He's been with the department since 2004.

The new chief is doing the right thing by alerting the community of what the Westfield Fire Department is facing, said Curt Floyd, a responder technical lead for the National Fire Protection Association.

The increase in calls between 2021 and 2022 in Westfield is "pretty significant," Floyd said. Fire departments across the country, both volunteer and career departments, are struggling right now with the recruitment and retention of firefighters, Floyd explained.

"Especially getting hit with the effects of COVID, what it has done is drawn down our staffing," Floyd said.

Increasing calls for service could simultaneously add stress to the high-pressure jobs Westfield Fire employees work every day, Gaylor said. The department has 85 employees including civilian staff, according to statistics provided to IndyStar.

In 2010, Noblesville had 114 shift personnel at a time it was seeing an equivalent number of calls to what Westfield responds to today, according to statistics provided by Westfield Fire.

More:Horses and housing combine for a Westfield development 'unlike anything in Indiana'

Higher demand for fire department services in Westfield could lead to an increased burden on other fire departments for aid, Gaylor said.

Mutual aid agreements exist between Westfield and cities like Carmel and Noblesville, which allows departments from other communities to respond to an emergency if Westfield Fire is unavailable.

"If someone calls 911 and the apparatus that would normally respond is unavailable, Hamilton County Communications will dispatch the closest and most appropriate units, even if that unit is several miles away and/or responding from a neighboring community," Noblesville Fire Department spokesman Trevor Hash wrote in an email. "Hamilton County first responders have had this agreement in place for a number of years and train together regularly to provide the best possible care and service for our communities."

But Gaylor said as the demand for Westfield’s services increases, more responses will come from first responders outside the city.

“We’re relying heavily on especially Noblesville and Carmel to provide aid and when we are using their resources, who’s helping them?” Gaylor asked.

For example, Westfield Fire only has two medic units, two-person units that include a paramedic, while the department responds to thousands of calls a year. In 2021, Westfield Fire responded to 3,051 medical calls and 1,389 fire-related calls, according to statistics provided to IndyStar.

Westfield Fire sends a fire truck and an ambulance on a majority of the city's high-level emergency medical calls, Gaylor said. Every firefighter in Westfield has at least a basic emergency medical technician training and Gaylor wants to add more employees to staff a third medic unit for the department, he said.

What will come in 2023 budget

The city of Westfield’s 2023 budget is likely to be presented to the City Council in initial budget meetings in the coming months.

About $15.7 million was proposed for the fire department in the 2022 budget, but the Westfield City Council approved a $2.5 million cut last October that moved funding the purchase of three fire vehicles to a lease.

Gaylor said he plans to ask for a 16% increase in the department's budget for 2023 to hire 12 new employees, some of whom would form the city's third medic unit.

"This is not a for sure thing as we are in the middle of our budget negotiations," Gaylor wrote in an email to IndyStar. "This is subject to change and may not come to fruition, but we are optimistic."

Hiring new employees is a huge investment, Gaylor said. Cities have to pay for training, gear and other equipment in addition to salaries.

“It’s easy to buy things, to build stations and to buy apparatus,” Gaylor said. “The difficult thing is to invest in people.”

'We have to find a way to fund it'

Westfield City Councilors say they recognize the fire department's needs and plan to support them financially as decisions are made on funding for the 2023 budget.

"It is the most important thing we do for our residents," Councilman Scott Willis said. "We have to find a way to fund it. We certainly need to start talking about it."

Councilors said they especially understand the department's need for personnel.

"Basically the need is for manpower, not necessarily equipment," Councilman Joe Edwards said. "Manpower comes out of property taxes and local income taxes. We’re going to have to see how much growth we have in the budget and plan accordingly."

Additional new fire stations are likely in Westfield’s future.

"Three stations to serve this current population, we're maxing them out," Mayor Andy Cook said in a city YouTube video posted last month.

Construction is ongoing for the new Fire Station 81 off Ditch Road. The department also is in conversation with city administration on a potential fourth station for Westfield Fire, Gaylor said. The cost of land will be a factor in that, he said.

“It’s definitely a good start,” Gaylor said.

Gaylor said the city must take a “real good look” at the community’s expectations of the fire department.

“Do they expect Westfield Fire to continue to provide services the way they are today? My guess is yes,” Gaylor said. “And so the only way for us to do that is to grow as an organization.”

Contact IndyStar's Carmel and Westfield reporter Brittany Carloni at brittany.carloni@indystar.com or 317-779-4468. Follow her on Twitter @CarloniBrittany.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Westfield Fire Chief warns of rising emergency calls as city grows