What other responsibilities do firefighters have other than fighting fires?
Emergency calls represents only about fifteen percent of the work of a typical fire department. The number of residential and commercial fires has steadily decreased over the years due to a variety of factors including improvements in construction, a greater public awareness of the risk factors leading to fires and a significant reduction in smoking nationwide. Fires, however, are only some of the emergencies to which the Fire Department responds. Nearly eighty percent of the Fire Department's emergency responses are, in fact, calls for medical aid, including illness/accidents at home and work, and injuries resulting from vehicle crashes. Other calls for emergency response involve hazardous materials releases, technical rescues, response to fire alarms and other calls for public assistance. Firefighters also spend much of their time maintaining equipment, doing routine public safety inspections for businesses and rental housing, training for all types of emergency responses and filling out the reports and paperwork associated with these activities.

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1. Why does the Fire Department bring the fire engine/ambulance just for a simple inspection?
2. Why do firefighters break out windows and cut holes in roof during a fire?
3. Why do you block traffic lanes at auto accidents, sometimes more lanes than necessary?
4. Why do firefighters work 24-hour shifts?
5. Why do we see fire department crews at the store?
6. What other responsibilities do firefighters have other than fighting fires?
7. How often should I change the batteries in my smoke detectors
8. Can I burn leaves in my yard?
9. Can I have a fire?
10. When I see an emergency vehicle approaching with lights and sirens while I am driving, what should I do?