While the numbers haven’t been finalized yet, 2023 was another record year for Kamloops Fire and Rescue.

Fire Chief Ken Uzeloc says KFR responded to approximately 10,975 calls for service last year, breaking the previous record of 10,325 set in 2022.

Nearly two-thirds of the calls in 2023 – an estimated record 7,142 – were medical in nature, which Uzeloc says covers everything from heart attacks to overdoses.

“It’s the system really,” Uzeloc said on NL Newsday.

“You’ve got no family doctors here, you’ve got no urgent cares, walk-in clinics. We’re in the middle of an ongoing and rising opioid crisis and all those things together, I think, contribute to that number of where there are not enough services for people to go to and so the 911 system is starting to see the uptake of that shortage.”

Uzeloc is expecting call volumes to increase this year, noting there has been a steady increase over the past couple of years.

“We’ll sit down and come up with strategies to deal with some of that trends,” he said.

“All of this information will feed into what we’re seeing and where we’re seeing Kamloops Fire and Rescue needs to invest in services and all of our equipment and resources to be able to meet demands.”

Uzeloc says the lack of provincial funding for medical calls is one of the leading concerns that fire chiefs across Canada have been raising the past two years.

“It takes away from the availability for car accidents, for fires, and it reduces the people we have available,” he said, adding KFR will still respond to medical calls.

“Our response times tend to increase especially on the North Shore which is our busiest station.”