Fire service stretched as overdoses spike
Calgary's fire department is grappling with a sharp rise in overdose responses this year, city data shows, as crews confront a changing drug supply and an overall surge in medical calls that Chief Steve Dongworth warns could push the service toward a record year.
The municipality reports the fire service has handled 170 per cent more overdose calls so far this year compared with the same period last year. Fire leadership says those calls are part of a broader increase in medical responses that now account for roughly 50 per cent of all calls.
“I think we're on pace to be very close to 100,000 calls this year,”
Dongworth told reporters the department is seeing service pressures from both volume and complexity, as new combinations of fentanyl and other substances make some overdoses less responsive to established treatments such as naloxone.
Operational impact on crews and coverage
The growing medical workload is changing the character of the fire department’s job. Firefighters — increasingly first responders to medical emergencies — are spending more time on scenes that were once predominantly the remit of ambulance services.
Those shifts are not without consequence. Dongworth said the department has undertaken work to better triage which calls require a fire response, but the capacity freed by that exercise is being consumed by rising numbers in other categories, including opioid overdoses.
The trend is already having human consequences inside the service: the department reports an increase in members taking leave, a reflection of the emotional and physical toll of repeatedly attending traumatic medical events.
- 170% — increase in overdose calls year over year (city data)
- 50% — proportion of total calls that are medical responses
- ~100,000 — projected total calls this year, according to the fire chief
| Metric | Reported figure |
|---|---|
| Overdose calls increase | 170% |
| Share of calls that are medical | 50% |
| Projected total calls | Close to 100,000 |
Province-level help and system pressures
City officials are looking to the provincial government for support to manage the workload and its impacts on response reliability. The exact nature of the request was not detailed in the city release, but the appeal reflects a recognition that these are systemwide public-health and safety challenges that extend beyond municipal resources.
Calgary’s experience joins similar accounts elsewhere in Alberta. The province has seen increasingly complex patterns in the illicit drug supply, and other municipalities have reported record-level drug harms in recent years. Fire leadership said those changes have affected how effective naloxone and other interventions can be in the field.
For residents, the operational pressures mean first-response coverage and timelines could be affected when fire units are tied up on medical calls. The city’s work to refine which calls need a fire response seeks to preserve where possible the availability of fire units for fires and technical rescue, but that capacity is under strain as medical incidents rise.
What this means for Calgarians
Safer outcomes will hinge on coordination across emergency services, enhanced supports for people who use drugs, and backing from provincial health and emergency-management partners. In the near term, the fire department will continue to adapt dispatch protocols and internal supports to protect crews and maintain response reliability.
Ultimately, the spike in overdoses is both a public-health crisis and an operational challenge for Calgary’s emergency services. Addressing it will require a combination of prevention and treatment strategies, sustained resourcing and intergovernmental co‑operation to reduce harm and preserve front-line capacity.
Reporting from Calgary.
