Officials with the Calgary Fire Department say they reached an unfortunate milestone last month when they logged the most calls for assistance with opioid overdoses.
The CFD says they attended 144 calls in July, up nearly 20 percent from the same time last year and 450 percent from July 2016.
Other months this year have also set records, with January logging 134 calls and 139 overdoses in March.
Fire officials hope this isn’t the beginning of a new upward trend.
“We really do hope to see a plateau and decline in these numbers, knowing that significant efforts are being made to address the crisis,” said Fire Chief Steve Dongworth in a release.
Before April 2015, opioid overdose calls for the fire department never exceeded 10 per month but now one patient per day is given naloxone on average.
The CFD only responds to life threatening medical calls and works in partnership with EMS.
Firefighters attended over 1,100 life threatening emergency calls related to overdoses last year and administered naloxone 318 times.
For more information, you can review the CFD’s incident map.
