Philomath Fire and Rescue responded to 1,130 calls for service in 2025 — the highest volume in the department’s history and a 33% increase over the past five years, according to the district’s year-end statistics.
The record call volume also represents a 3% increase from 2024. Of the 1,130 calls, 914 — or 81% — were categorized as medical, up from 824 the previous year. Fire calls accounted for the remaining 216, down from 271 in 2024.
Dan Eddy, operations chief, noted that the fire call category covers a broad range of incidents.
“Nineteen percent are what we consider fire calls, but that could be anywhere from a motor-vehicle accident that was noninjury or a gas leak,” he said.
Eddy, who mentioned that he loves pouring through the numbers, anticipates that data will be broken down more precisely in the future.
“Through a national reporting system that we’re working on, it’s going to break things down a little bit more,” Eddy said.
The department is staffed by nine career staff members, five resident volunteers, and 15 response volunteers.
Despite the increased call load, the department continued to improve its response times. Initial response time — the time from receiving a call to units leaving the station — dropped from 1.8 minutes five years ago to 1.35 minutes in 2025.
Fire Chief Chancy Ferguson said that figure compares favorably to national benchmarks.
“I think 2-1/2 minutes out the door at night is kind of where they want to see and then two minutes during the day,” Ferguson said. “So the 1.3 minutes across the board for us — we don’t average day vs. night — we’re well below that bar and I think significantly better than most. So that’s something our crews pride themselves on.”
Eddy put the department’s performance in historical context.
“If you think back to when it was a volunteer organization completely, the national average for volunteer response time is five to six minutes to get out the door and then you have travel time,” he said.
Average on-scene arrival time across the district came in just under six minutes. Eddy acknowledged that rural calls and mutual aid responses to neighboring districts such as Alsea and Monroe stretched that average.
“Six minutes is throwing in multiple calls to Alsea and Monroe and those stretch those averages out pretty quickly,” Ferguson said.
The county area within three miles of the city led all geographic zones with 340 calls, or 30% of total volume. West Philomath, west of 19th Street, followed with 317 calls (28%), while East Philomath accounted for 222 calls (20%). The Inavale area logged 111 calls (10%), the Wren area 48 calls (4%), and mutual aid to other departments totaled 92 calls (8%) — a 29% increase from the prior year.
Eddy noted that call distribution can shift from year to year, sometimes due to specific factors like repeated visits to a single address.
“Last year, we switched and the rural area right around town was our higher call volume,” he said. “Not significantly — like 340 calls compared to 317 for last year.”
He added that he expects the distribution to “probably reset back to a more traditional” pattern going forward.
The rising call volume mirrors broader growth in the district. Assessed property values have increased 5% annually over the past five years, reflecting new subdivisions and business development that continue to expand the department’s service area.
Beyond emergency response, Philomath Fire and Rescue reached 974 individuals through public education efforts including CPR and first aid training, fire extinguisher training and health fairs. The department also conducted two Basic Fire Academy sessions with 11 total students — nine from Philomath and two from Hoskins-Kings Valley Rural Fire — and completed 12 plan reviews along with 27 access and water supply evaluations.
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