The Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) has reported an increase in the number of emergency calls received in 2025.

“We would have responded to well over 20,000 emergency incidents; 21,699 to be exact, and this is a 13.7 per cent increase over the previous year,” Commissioner Stewart Beckford said.

He noted that the increase was driven mainly by a rise in bushfires and special service responses, which include non-fire emergencies such as flooding and rescue operations.

Beckford, during an interview with JIS News, pointed out that the increase in special services calls is linked to the passage of Hurricane Melissa, which affected the island on Tuesday, October 28, 2025.

He further informed that of the total number of emergency calls responded to in 2025, 11,048 were genuine fire calls, while 1,787 were malicious false alarms.

Commissioner Beckford said that for genuine calls, “there was a 13 per cent increase over the previous year, where we had 9,775”.

Of the total number of genuine calls, 1,555 were structural fires, 5,710 were bush fires, 457 were motor vehicle fires, 2,340 were fires related to rubbish/dump, 805 were related to electrical equipment, farm/cultivated land accounted for 168, while another 13 were categorised as others.