Last Monday, Nov. 10, Snoqualmie Fire Chief Bob Rowe sent out a congratulatory e-mail to his team of firefighters.

The occasion marked 2009 as the busiest year on record for the Snoqualmie Fire Department, which logged its 938th emergency call that day, beating out the previous record of 932 calls in 2004.

“Every one from here on out is a record,” Rowe said.

Starting in 2010, the department will start getting global positioning data on all calls to determine where fire crews go, and how often. Until then, it is difficult to tell what is causing the growth.

“Is the community starting to age?” Rowe asked. “Is it the type of people who are moving to the community? Are people getting educated (about fire service)? There’s a whole host of reasons.”

“Where there are more people, there are going to be more calls,” he added.

Part of call volume growth is due to Snoqualmie Casino. In its first year in operation, the casino has drawn aid responses 156 times. Casino calls represent about 16 percent of total volume this year. However, response levels to the casino are about half of what the department predicted. As the economy improves, Rowe expects call volumes at the casino to increase.

Calls had dropped in 2005 after the previous spike. Rowe thinks that drop was due to the reopening of Snoqualmie Valley Hospital. After that, call volumes slowly rose.

The fire department’s staff has been stable since 2000. There are 12 paid staff, including nine firefighters and two chiefs. Twenty-three volunteer firefighters are also on the books, with four cadets set to join their ranks in December. Volunteers come and go, in general working with the department for about two years, but Snoqualmie benefited from a heavy recruiting drive in 2008 that brought in 10 dedicated recruits. Volunteerism demands a heavy time commitment, including training sessions every Wednesday night.

Rowe doesn’t expect the increased call volumes to burn out his department, even though Snoqualmie firefighters are in a ‘hold-the-line’ budget year.

The fire department’s current budget was cut by $30,000, or about 1.5 percent, after police and fire heads were asked by the mayor to find ways to trim costs in early 2009. Fire savings comes from smaller dispatch costs and fewer equipment purchases due to fewer new volunteers.

Rowe is asking for $1.8 million for 2010, about 60,000 less than in 2009.

“Public safety is usually the last thing councils cut,” Rowe said. “Usually, if there is a substantial impact that affects the general fund, the decision is to cut elsewhere.”

Rowe stressed that city residents won’t notice the cuts. Emergency response and public outreach efforts won’t change.

“It’ll be business as usual,” he said.