FARGO (KFGO) – The Chief Steve Dirksen says Fargo Fire Department responded to a record number of calls in 2022.
There were nearly 15,000 incidents which is about a 40% increase in the past five years.
Dirksen said most of them were unintentional.
“That’s a good thing, that we don’t have a lot of intentional fires set,” Dirksen said. “Those often make it more difficult to determine because it’s hard to figure out the cause. We can get it to an area, but sometimes that’s about all we can do. We can’t tell whether it was a toaster, a coffee maker, or something like that.”
Dirksen said there were 128 building fires last year – up slightly from 2021 – and the number of vehicle fires jumped in 2022.
There are reports of an increasing number of electric battery fires in hybrid vehicles, and Dirksen said they’re aware of the potential danger.
“One of the challenges we’re starting to realize with vehicle fires and things we’re going to have to look for is the electric vehicles,” Dirksen said. “When those batteries start to burn, there’s no easy way to put them out.”
City Commissioner Dave Piepkorn recommended, until a resolution to the vehicle fire issue is available, electric vehicles should not be allowed in city parking ramps.
“I have lots of questions about this because, actually, water accelerates the burn because it’s a Class D fire,” Piepkorn said. “Lithium is the metal that’s in there and what happens is, it doesn’t go out. This is a big deal, and I think it’s very scary. The other thing is the extreme heat – 2,000 degrees.”
The City Commission did not take action on the recommendation at this time.
