What other responsibilities do firefighters have other than fighting fires?
Firefighting actually represents a relatively small portion of the work of a typical fire department in today’s world. 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 Lancaster Fire Department responds. More than seventy percent of the Fire Department’s emergency responses are, in fact, calls for medical aid, including illness/accidents at home and work, injuries resulting from vehicle accidents and other medical trauma. Other calls for emergency response involve hazardous materials releases, response to fire alarms and other calls for public assistance.
Firefighters also spend quite a bit of time maintaining equipment, doing routine public safety inspections for businesses, training for all types of emergency responses and filling out the reports and paperwork associated with these activities.

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1. What other responsibilities do firefighters have other than fighting fires?
2. Why does the Fire Department bring the fire engine just for a simple inspection?
3. Why do I see firefighters at stores when they are working?
4. Why do fire trucks sometimes turn off their lights and sirens after going through an intersection?
5. I called 9-1-1 for a medical emergency and fire apparatus came to my home?
6. When I see an emergency vehicle approaching with lights and sirens while I am driving, what should I do?
7. Why do firefighters break windows and cut holes in roofs when the fire is inside a building? It seems that they are causing more damage than the fire?
8. What type of extinguishers and how many are recommended for the home?
9. Are electric space heaters legal and are they safe?