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Summer has been anything but vacation time for Fire District 13 personnel.

Service calls, including hospital transports, have continued to follow a six-month upward trend, chief Wood Weiss told fire commissioners during their regular hybrid meeting July 14.

Weiss’ mid-year statistics showed that the district had received 636 calls for service since January 1, a significant increase over the same period in 2020 and 2021. The fire district had fielded 538 calls during the first six months of 2020. In 2021, the mid-year count was 567 calls.

Transports over the first half of 2022 stand at 162. Those numbers were 114 in 2020 and 128 a year ago.

“We’re looking at probably having 1,300 calls this year,” Weiss said.

June was especially busy for district emergency medical staff.

“We had four CPRs (cardiopulmonary resuscitations) last month,” Weiss said. “That’s an average of one per week. It’s taken a toll on our EMTs (emergency medical technicians).”

Medical Officer Drew Ferrell confirmed Weiss’ report. “We’ve been reaching out to those who were involved,” Ferrell said. “A couple of those calls were tough ones. We have a lot of young folks just out of EMT school, so we know it’s impacted them hard.”

Weiss reported Swinomish Tribal Police also responded to the CPR calls.

Pandemic concerns haven’t gone away, either, said Weiss.

He said 704 COVID-19 cases were reported in Skagit County last month, with 129 cases recorded at Swinomish. Only one-third the actual number of people who contracted the virus are reporting it, he said.

Weiss said the fire district and Swinomish officials continue to discuss launching a community paramedicine program.

Capt. Ted Taylor reported that discussions continue with Swinomish Emergency Management Coordinator Brian Geer, a tribal police officer, for plans for evacuating Shelter Bay if a major fire overwhelms that community.

Those talks have included prospects for removing residents by boat.

“We don’t think we can have our own Dunkirk and move a significant amount of people,” conceded Taylor, referring to the famous World War II Allied beach evacuation in France.

Taylor said there will again be a Great ShakeOut exercise in October as part of local emergency earthquake and tsunami preparations. Last year, firefighters drilled on time efficient removal of emergency vehicles from station areas.

Commissioner John Doyle said he will meet with a Coach Corral site manager to discuss the permit process for installing a new modular firefighters residential unit at the Snee-Oosh Road station.