ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The Albuquerque Fire Department is seeing an increase in people starting fires just to stay warm in the International District. 

So, they’re making a change to make sure they can put the fires out quickly.

“We’ve seen a big increase in the number of outside fires that we’re responding to, anything from warming fires to dumpster fires,” said AFR Public Information Officer Lt. Jason Fejer. 

AFR has responded to thousands of calls for smaller fires that start outside like trash, dumpster, and rubbish fires.

“We responded to over 1,000 of them in November, which is up from 800 in November of 2022,” said Fejer. 

Fejer says in order to meet that demand, they stationed a brush fire truck to patrol the International District.

“Our brush trucks are much smaller trucks. They’re staffed to two people and typically respond to a wildland type fires. So we’re going to use that same apparatus but this time to extinguish smaller fires: rubbish fires, trash fires, dumpster fires,” said Fejer. 

The goal is to help reduce some of the calls firefighters are getting in already busy parts of town like the east Central corridor.

“The truck is going to be housed at Station 3. So that’s the station right there Girard and Central by the University of Mexico, which also sees some demand for outside fires there as well. So, it’s going to be one truck, it’s going to patrol all of our busiest areas, in hopes of taking away some of that call volume from our busiest apparatus,” Fejer said. 

AFR is working with Albuquerque Community Safety to provide options for anyone starting fires to stay warm.

“ACS who are partnering with now they’re 24/7 are available to actually give some of those individuals a ride to shelters if they choose. So that’s our stance on it, if they want to stay warm, there’s open shelter beds, and that’s where we hope that they stay. We have seen several outside fires this year that have impacted structures. So it’s something we’re just trying to avoid,” said Fejer. 

The truck is already getting in on some action. As of 2 p.m. it’s already been out on at least three calls.

In addition to more outside fires, AFR is seeing more calls in general. KOB 4 was told they’re seeing about a 9,000 yearly increase in calls.