??Local Madison fire stations were public hot spots Saturday as they hosted open houses to complete Fire Prevention Week. Families and curious Madison citizens flocked to their nearest fire departments to check out fire trucks and meet local firefighters.
At Fire Station One, 316 W. Dayton St., firefighters Jon Mast and Nate Franke responded to the usual calls of the day, but during their down time they greeted the Madison community.
Mast said firefighters at Station One respond to an average of 12 calls per day. Along with fighting fires, Mast said the station responds to a variety of crises like car accidents, carbon monoxide scares and sports injuries.
Station One serves UW-Madison students and is the busiest station in the Madison area. Franke noted the number of student calls far outnumber those of average Madison citizens.
\The younger student population certainly lends itself to a more stereotypical type of call-a lot of alcohol incidents and a lot of injuries usually as a result of alcohol,"" said Franke. He also added that false alarms are more common among the students.
The Fire Department is unable to deem any calls prank calls before direct investigation. All stations must respond to every single call. Franke said students generate the most calls from Thursday to the early morning hours on Sunday, and that some of these are false alarms.
""We get false alarms quite a bit, mainly in the student housing areas, and to be honest, that's a real chronic problem,"" Franke said. ""Typically, somebody's pulled the alarm after they've come back from the bar and it happens all the time. Unfortunately, we have to handle every call like it's real.""
All firefighters at Station One encourage students and citizens to stop by, even if they missed the open house. ""The stations are open not only this week, but anytime for people to come in and take a look around,"" Mast said.
