2024 was the busiest year on record for Cranberry Township Volunteer Fire Company
CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP (KDKA) - Cranberry Township fire crews are seeing a significant increase in emergency calls, and one of the reasons calls keep pouring in has to do with internet upgrades.
2024 was Cranberry Township Volunteer Fire Company's busiest year on record. Firefighters responded to 1,183 calls in and around the community.
"That is the busiest fire department in Butler County. Regardless of if you get a paycheck or not. Those are all fire-related calls, not ambulance service besides maybe one or a couple of them to call to assistance that they send out," said Chief Scott Garing of Cranberry Township Fire and Emergency Services.
He said one factor for the increase is the constant growth in the area.
"Our community is constantly investing in new businesses, and new residential developments. And it's a place where people want to be," Garing said.
Fire crews saw a unique, alarming trend boosting calls for help. He said it was due to improvements in internet access.
"Just like everything else that continues to get upgraded in our community, they were putting fiber optic lines to all of the homes in Cranberry. And a lot of them resulted in gas lines being struck. So, we had a very significant increase in gas related calls for handling them for checking homes for gas smells and also gas leaks at the street," said Garing.
"In Cranberry, most of our infrastructure is buried under the ground. So they had to horizontal drill across everybody's front yard," he added.
Chief Garing said they had 223 hazardous conditions calls last year. Most were gas related calls with more than half being associated with fiber optic cable installations and gas lines being hit.
"They had some pretty big ones. We were there for several hours while they attempted to stop it. We had road closures. We had extended durations of being there. We've checked multiple houses, evacuated several houses," he said. "I like to tout that we have become subject matter experts in combustible gas responses."
He said they expect to get fewer calls like this because three companies did the work around the same time.
Last year the fire company also responded to calls for 69 fires, 166 rescues, 65 service calls, 386 good intent calls, and 268 false alarms.
The chief said they're always planning ahead and improving with help from township supervisors.
"We're always looking to get better. So, if everybody focuses on that, we can all do some good things," Garing said.
CTVFC even has its own training center on-site. The department reported 6,565.04 training hours for 2024.
The fire company has a staffing program that helps keep them prepared and offers a stipend program where they pay volunteers per shift.
Chief Garing said they always need more volunteers to join their team because the calls aren't slowing down anytime soon.
"It will be just as busy as last year. Things haven't changed. Things haven't slowed down," he said.
If you're interested in becoming a volunteer firefighter, you can sign up at this link.