By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – The Alabaster Fire Department saw a busier year in 2018 compared with the previous year, and responded to nearly 4,000 calls for service over the 12-month period.

The AFD recently released its year-end report for 2018, which was reviewed by the Alabaster City Council during its Jan. 22 meeting.

In December 2018, the department’s three fire stations responded to 335 incidents, and the vast majority of them were medical-related calls. The AFD responded to eight fires, 224 medical calls, 12 hazard calls, 44 general service calls, 34 good intent calls and 11 false alarms.

The number of responses in December 2018 were down from the 509 calls the department responded to in December 2017, but the yearly numbers were up from the 2017 numbers.

During the 2018 calendar year, the AFD responded to a total of 5,935 incidents, which was up from the 2017 number of 5,696.

Last year also saw a good number in the “property saved” category, as the department ended the year with just shy of $2 million worth of property saved in 2018.

However, ambulance transports were down in 2018 compared to the previous year. In December 2018, the department saw 128 patients transported by ambulance, bringing the year-end number to 1,446. In 2017, the department saw 1,539 ambulance transports.

In December 2018, the department logged 1,543 hours of training, took 63 blood pressure readings at fire stations, installed 34 child seats, attended two community events, gave 10 fire station tours, installed one smoke alarm and changed the batteries in one smoke alarm. The department also escorted Santa Claus throughout the city on Christmas Eve and hosted its annual Christmas Village at Fire Station No. 1.

Year-end training hour numbers for the department hit 26,470 in 2018, which was down slightly from the 26,860 hours the department logged in 2017.