LYNN — In 2022, the Lynn Fire Department responded to 16,104 emergency calls, averaging 44 emergency response incidents in Lynn each day.
The Lynn Fire Regional Dispatch Center reported that last year, they responded to 23,220 emergency calls from Lynn, Swampscott and Nahant, with nearly 70 percent of them coming from Lynn.
The city’s emergency call volume increased by 800 incidents, approximately 5 percent, since 2021. District Fire Chief Joseph Zukas said that in addition to the more than 16,000 emergencies, Atlantic Ambulances responded to approximately 5,000 less severe emergency calls in Lynn this past year.
“Of those 16,000 calls, about 65 percent, roughly, are medical calls. There were an additional 5,000 medical calls that Atlantic goes off to by themselves, that didn’t generate an incident report. Those are typically very minor calls,” Zukas said.
Zukas speculated that the increase in emergency calls likely corresponds with Lynn’s rising population as well as lack of a hospital.
“We used to have under 100,000 people. Now we have over 100,000 people. We have more people in the city, and we don’t have any hospitals on the city line anymore. A lot of people rely on 911 as their primary care,” Zukas said.
Zukas added that the COVID-19 pandemic also played a role in the increase in medical emergencies. Fire Chief Daniel Sullivan added that the pandemic sparked a widespread awareness on health that likely played a role in the increased medical emergency calls.
“People are more aware because of COVID. So I think people are more apt to call 911. As a society, maybe we’re more aware of our health and how our health impacts our neighbors. That probably has something to do with it,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan, too, said that Lynn’s rising population plays a significant role in the dispatch’s call frequency.
“We’ve increased the number of living units in the community, which is certainly going to impact services — that’s not only public safety, but that’s going to be the school systems. It’ll also bring a lot more business to the city, so there’s two sides to that,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan added that the fire department plans to create a community emergency medical service (EMS) unit dedicated to handling 911 calls that deserve attention, but do not require a trip to the emergency room. With a community EMS, he said that the department could better manage its resources amid significant population growth.
“As the population grows, and as we learn more about how we respond to these calls, there are alternatives that we’re exploring, such as community EMS. We would have a reduced number of people that would go out and check on the people who don’t necessarily need to go to an emergency room,” Sullivan said. “If there was an elderly person that was, you know, maybe has a history of slipping and falling, and we’ll go in just help pick them up and get them back in their chairs, or potentially, they do have to go to the hospital, you know, maybe we’ll we’ll send some people out to find the cause.”
Sullivan added that the creation of a community EMS would reduce ambulance wait times.
“If we could expand into something like that in the near future, it would also reduce the wait times for the ambulance. Right now we have a significant wait time on a lot of ambulances, because, like, the rest of the country hiring employees is tough. We know that the ambulance service is feeling that impact as well,” Sullivan said.
