KILLEEN, Texas — First responders across Central Texas are seeing a spike in calls due to icy conditions.
Since 7 a.m. Tuesday, Killeen Fire Department responded to almost 100 calls. Killeen Fire Chief James Kubinski said the two most frequent calls for service are car crashes and falls on the ice. To put that into perspective, in a typical 24 hour shift, the department gets around 75 calls.
6 News got to ride along with Killeen Fire Battalion Chief Phillip Bannister Tuesday evening as he responded to stalled vehicles, crashes and monitored the roads.
"This is not typical of what our fire department would usually respond to," he said about the icy conditions. "This is usually a once or twice a year kind of event for us."
6 News was able to see how frequent the calls were Tuesday evening. Bannister said there is a lot of planning, extra staffing and communication that goes into the operation of keeping citizens safe.
"The preparatory changes a little bit for us, we prep for the cold weather, we prep for the boost trucks being ready," he explained.
With the increase in calls, the different fire stations are usually having to be backup cover for each other, or sometimes work out of their assigned "district."
The men and women of Killeen FD respond to incidents in well traveled areas, slower traffic in town and everything in between. 6 News was at the scene of a stalled vehicle on W.S. Young Drive and a single vehicle crash on I-14 Tuesday night.
Bannister warns drivers to be careful and not confident when driving in icy conditions because road conditions can deteriorate quickly.
"195 and Stan Schlueter is problematic, Rosewood and I-14 is problematic, I-14 and W.S.Young," he explained. "They're high traffic, high volume areas and they sit there and they hold the weather."
They're braving the cold, icy conditions, and putting their lives at risk on the side of the road because when duty calls, these essential works will be there.
"I think for the most of us we join this job for those kinds of things," Bannister added. "We don't necessarily need the warmth and coziness of home. We come out, we do this because we were blessed with a certain mentality or drive that brings us out in this to help the public."