Lake County Gazette

The Waukegan Fire Department responded to a record 12,679 service calls in 2024, as reported by Fire Chief Gregg Paiser. The fire chief presented the department's activities for the previous month and year at the City Council meeting on February 3.

"We are always the busiest fire department in Lake County and this was no different. The next closest was the Gurnee Fire Department that was 4,500 less calls," Paiser said, according to a video recording of the Waukegan City Council meeting.

According to Paiser, 9,000 of these service calls were for emergency medical services (EMS), accounting for 71.5% of the total calls. The department handled 119 cardiac arrests, seven pediatric arrests, and twelve traumatic arrests. The Lucas device, a hands-free CPR system, was utilized 113 times. Firefighters administered Narcan 170 times and transported patients to Vista Medical Center East on 6,382 occasions and Advocate Condell Medical Center 235 times. Crews also responded to seven nursing homes and behavioral centers a total of 894 times.

Paiser further said that his department attended to 42 major structure fires with damages exceeding $15 million. They also dealt with 1,160 false alarms throughout the year. August recorded the highest number of calls at 1,196 while February had the fewest at 895. Station No. 1 on Belvidere Road emerged as the busiest station with Station No. 3 on N. Lewis Avenue following closely.

The fire chief noted that his team conducted 4,045 inspections and reviewed 233 plans during the year. They inspected 155 sprinkler systems and updated occupancy loads for 119 premises while investigating all structure fires.

Paiser highlighted that members of his department completed a record-breaking total of 72,232 hours of training in 2024 and trained an additional 377 people in CPR. January saw significant activity with a total of 956 service calls; among these were eighteen cardiac arrests and eight drug overdoses necessitating eight rounds of Narcan administration. The Lucas device was employed seven times during this period while firefighters made numerous patient transports—443 to Vista Medical Center East and eleven to Condell—and responded to five structure fires causing damages amounting to $541,500.