2008 was a busy year for the Quinte West Fire Department. There were close to one thousand calls for service, 100 more then last year. Fire Chief John Whalen says many of the extra calls are false alarms, caused by people cooking or malfunctions, and too often, security companies, an out of town one in particular, aren’t quick enough to tell the Fire department to not bother responding. Fines are going to charged for false alarms, starting at 25 dollars..going as high as 500 dollars. There were 208 medical assist calls for Quinte West Fire personell last year…and there was a total 3.6 million dollars in damage caused by fire.
