The Leighton Township Fire Department today posted on Facebook that it has seen yet another spike in emergency incidents.

The post indicated that, “For 2023 the increase was a record 16% over 2022. This is likely due to the continued population boom in Leighton Township, which grew 41% in the last census. In 2020, the department saw a major spike in EMS calls that were attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we have seen growth every year after that, and continue to see a rise.

“It is important to remember that LTFD is a paid-on-call fire department with the exception of the chief. This means that none of our firefighters are full time. None of our firefighters work a shift at the fire stations. Everyone wears a pager and must drop everything they are doing to help those in need. LTFD is staffed with 30 individuals covering 36 square miles of Leighton who are willing to respond to the call as we grow each year.”

The average response time to an incident for 2023 was  6 minutes and 24 seconds.