Niverville Fire and Emergency Medical Services attended twice as many emergency calls last year compared to 2020.

It responded to 271 calls in 2021, and only 130 calls in 2020.

Chief Keith Bueckert says there’s a good reason for the staggering increase. Numbers were much lower than normal during 2020 because they were restricted in responding to medical calls due to COVID-19.

The department responds to a variety of calls; from fires to car crashes to medical emergencies.

In 2019, they responded to 289 emergency calls.

Keith Bueckert, Niverville Fire Chief.

Bueckert says the first month of this year resulted in 36 calls and he’s thankful for the strong community support they get.

“We are very fortunate,” he says. “Our community and our council and mayor, they work extremely well with us. We have a great relationship with them. We’ve been able to retain the membership that we have.”

The Niverville Fire Department has 35 members and Bueckert says that’s an adequate number for the current size of the community.

Meanwhile, Bueckert is excited about a pilot project they’re starting this year which will see six more people start training with his crew.

The department had a successful recruitment drive last year and they decided to make the most of it by starting a resource pool.

“We’re going to train people and have them working within our department,” Bueckert says. “That way, if people start to leave, we don’t feel that we’re losing about 18 months to get somebody trained up to the standards that we have in town.”

This approach allows recruits to get a good understanding of what is involved and they can decide if this is a right fit for them, he explains.

Here is a breakdown of the department's activity last year, as posted on their Facebook page.

Numbers from 2021 for Niverville Fire and EMS.

The Niverville Fire & EMS is proud to serve this community! Our time spent serving Niverville is broken up into 3 portions…

Training - Which takes place throughout the year. In 2021, we completed 27 nights of training where we maintain inventory on the trucks, team building and train for fire and medical emergencies.

Non-Emergency - Which includes public education, building inspections, school visits, parades and community events. In 2021 we completed 146 non-emergency events.

Emergency Calls - Attending Medical & Fire related calls, within the community and Mutual Aid (assisting other local departments at calls). In 2021 we attended 271 fire & emergency calls.

The NFES would like to thank our outstanding members who work hard at serving this community! We would also like to extend our thanks to our supportive families so we can give our best to the people of Niverville! Together, we are one extended family and are proud to serve our community!