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By Joseph A. Curtatone

Taking a closer look at notable city data—and interesting numbers. 

97%: The Somerville Fire Department responds to 97% of calls – including fires, medical calls, and other emergencies – in fewer than five minutes. The National Fire Protection Association has set a guideline of five-minute response times, which include both travel to the location of the call and the time it takes fire fighters to respond and prepare to go to the call.

3 minutes and 28 seconds: With a large amount of construction happening this year, and some major road closures and detours in effect, the Fire Department has been carefully watching response times. From April through July of this year, the average response time has been 3:28, which is one second up from the average response time over the same period last year. But it’s also a significant decrease from prior years – 3:38 in 2016 and 3:40 in 2017. The fact that average response times have remained low despite construction speaks to the amount of planning our first responders were doing well before the first shovels hit the ground. They looked at how to best deploy equipment to make sure all sectors of the city have coverage, worked out mutual aid agreements with neighboring communities, and continue to look at the data to see if any changes are needed.

1,002: In July of this year, the Somerville Fire Department responded to 1,002 emergency incidents. Those include fires, medical emergencies, and other emergency calls. The number of calls the fire department responds to varies from month to month, but over the past few years it’s ranged from just shy of 800 calls in February 2019 to close to 1,100 calls in January and March of 2018.

3 time periods: The fire department doesn’t just look at citywide figures. They drill down into neighborhoods and, because traffic fluctuates, look at response times from different times during the day. Union Square is home to an ongoing infrastructure project that has caused some road closures and detours this spring and summer, but Engine 3, which covers the area, has kept average response times well under five minutes. Depending on the time of day, though, there have been both increases and decreases in average response time as compared to last year. During the peak morning commute, response times have stayed steady at 3:37; midday, the average is 3:30 compared to 3:19 last year; and during the peak evening commute, average response times are 3:12, down two seconds from last year.

Data-based decision making is at the core of how the City of Somerville develops policy and sets priorities. Every day we check the latest 311 stats, and throughout the week we meet for in-depth review of departmental data and city trends. The Data Download column shares some of the data we’ve been reviewing recently, as well as interesting updates. To see more Somerville Data, visit the online Somerville Data Farm at www.somervillema.gov/datafarm.