In a case of 'no news is good news', this Christmas was mostly a silent night for first responders, with both the local fire department and police service reporting no major incidents on Dec. 24 and 25.
The Guelph Fire Department sends out descriptions of many of its calls to Twitter, but platoon chief Dave Patterson said those Tweets don’t always tell the whole story.
Many times when a 911 call comes in reporting a fire, it can end up being less serious, he said.
“When we get initial information in dispatch, we assume it’s a worst-case scenario, so it often gets reported as a fire,” said Patterson.
Two separate Tweets that indicated residential house fires on Christmas Eve ended up less serious, said Patterson.
“We have had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day fires (in the past), but fortunately in this case neither one turned out to be a fire,” said Patterson.
Another Tweet sent by the department on Christmas Day for a high rise fire also turned out to not be a fire.
The fire department received a normal number of calls and the same types of calls as usual, said Patterson. Those calls included motor-vehicle collisions, medical calls and some false alarms.
“There was nothing unusual this holiday season, thankfully,” said Patterson.
In a call to Guelph Police Service, the staff sgt. on duty said there were no major incidents to report.
“It was basically just another normal day, in terms of call volume,” he said.
