Fire Department: 295 calls for service, 126 fire calls in St. Paul over 24 hours
[St. Paul Fire Department]
The St. Paul Fire Department says, from 8 a.m. Thursday to 8 a.m. Friday, it responded to 295 calls for service, 169 of which were EMS calls and 126 of which were fire calls.
However, the department said 55 of the 126 were actual working fires primarily to commercial occupancies.
Due to the high number of fire calls, the department called in 85 additional firefighters, giving the department a total of about 200 firefighters to fight the flames.
Two firefighters were injured while on the job, according to the department. The severity of those injuries wasn’t clear.
@StPaulFireDept responded to 295 calls for service in the past 24hrs. The majority of the fires were in commercial buildings. Firefighters endured rocks and bottles being thrown at them while doing their job. @sppdmn officers provided much needed security and safety. pic.twitter.com/c18OO2DX0y
— Saint Paul Fire Dept (@StPaulFireDept) May 29, 2020
St. Paul Fire said it also got help from some local partners, including departments in Roseville, Maplewood, Little Canada, Lake Johana, North St. Paul, Dakota County, Washington County, South Metro, Woodbury and MAC Fire.
The Department of Safety and Inspections mobilized its Disaster Assessment Response Teams and deployed five teams to assess structural damage at more than 100 locations.
"I want to thank the women and men of our department for the incredible work they performed. Our firefighters responded in challenging conditions which included them having rocks, bricks, and bottles thrown at them. They do this work to serve the residents and visitors of St. Paul and to ensure that every person is cared for and safe," said Chief Butch Inks.
"I also want to say thank you to Chief Axtell and the entire St. Paul police Department. They selflessly responded with us to ensure we were safe and could perform our duties. Without their public safety partnership, it would have been very difficult if not impossible to serve our residents effectively," Inks added.