Busy year for Norwich Fire and Emergency Services

Luke Edwards, Post Contributor

Treacherous weather conditions were a main contributing factor that drove an increase in calls for Norwich firefighters last year.

Year-end totals found the township’s Fire and Emergency Services responded to 292 calls in 2025, up from 264 in 2024. They responded to fewer than 220 calls in each of 2022 and 2023.

“All in all, it was a busy year, you’ll see that the call volume was up. That’s largely due to weather related and medical,” said Derek Van Pagee, director of fire and emergency services.

Motor vehicle collisions made up 29 per cent of the calls in 2025, Van Pagee’s report said, up from 24 per cent in 2024. One in four calls were classified as medical, 35 per cent were fire calls, and the remaining 11 per cent were classified as other.

Station 2 saw a record breaking 125 medical calls, something Van Pagee said they’ll monitor but has seemed to calm down more recently.

By total hours, 2025 also saw an increase from the previous year with crews logging 2,476 hours last year compared to 2,285 in 2024. However, it’s down from the four-year average of 2,755, owing mostly to an outlier year in 2023 where crews logged 4,001 hours.