Call volumes not out of ordinary during arctic blast, Austin first responders say

AUSTIN, Texas - First responders have been braving the elements to help those in need during the cold weather.

Both the Austin Fire Department and Austin-Travis County EMS say their call volumes haven't been drastically out of the ordinary. While it's cold, they say it helps that there's no precipitation. 

"[Crews] have really putting forth their best effort to take care of people, and they're feeling very good about it," Stephen White, Division Chief of Integrated Services at ATCEMS, said. 

On Dec. 22, ATCEMS responded to 359 911 calls. Of those, 17 were for cold weather exposures with hypothermia being the biggest problem. 

"It really doesn't take a long time to really get into the danger zone when you're dealing with the temperatures that we are today," White said.

They didn't respond to any carbon monoxide calls. Overall, the call volume was pretty steady, but they did staff up. 

"We did that to try to take a little bit of the load off of the field response so that they would be available for more high acuity cold weather calls," White said. 

Medics worked with the city's Homeless Street Outreach Team and moved 300-400 people on the streets to shelters with Cap Metro.

ATCEMS units also took 28 people and four dogs to warming centers. 

If people didn't want to go to a shelter, crews took down their location and followed up. 

The Austin Firefighters Association also had a warming center. 

"They're just good people that are going through a very hard time in their life, and they really need a hand," said Bob Nicks, president of Austin Firefighters Association.

Their call volume wasn't out of the ordinary, either. 

"We had about 500 unit responses, so it was a little bit busier than normal, but not greatly out of the norm," Nicks said.

One firefighter was hospitalized after working on a fire on McKinley Avenue.

"Some serious things occurred, and we had an elevation of fire. They were out there fighting fires a little more than normal," Nicks said. "When a firefighter goes to certain fires, 2,000 degrees, doesn't matter if it's -15 outside or 100 outside."

Cold weather shelters will be open through Sunday. Registration for shelter happens each evening from 6-8 p.m. at the One Texas Center at 505 Barton Springs Road.