MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – Myrtle Beach Fire Rescue responded to more calls in 2016 than any year in the last twenty years.

The department responded to more than 14k incidents last year but only about 5k of those were fire related.

The department says one reason is the same other departments are having around the county, they’re responding to people overdosing on Heroin.

In the last twenty years, Lt. Jonathan Evans says the number of calls for help in Myrtle Beach have more than doubled.

“Twenty years ago, we were running 6,000 calls a year. You know, 2007, we were running just over 10,000 calls a year. This year, we’re doing 14,400 you know from last year. So, they just continuously go up,” said Evans.

Statistics show every year Myrtle Beach Fire Rescue responds to more calls than the year before, but 2016 tops the charts at 14,403.

Evans says those calls were for several different things like car accidents, fires, and medical calls, but a lot of the calls were because of Heroin.

“It has been an increase, we have added extra protocols to deal with that. We work with the police department to give them some training on what they can do to help with overdoses and using Narcan to kind of help to see if that is what’s going on with these individuals,” said Evans.

Evans says before, paramedics were the only ones who could give a patient Narcan, but because of the increase in overdoses, they’ve had to add additional training for all of their staff.

“Now, we’re training EMTs, we’re like I said getting the police involved which might not have as much EMS training, but giving them the knowledge and what to look for and how they can help that kind of thing,” said Evans.

Evans says on top of the Heroin Epidemic, Myrtle Beach is growing and in order to keep you safe, they’re going to have to look at ways to grow, too.

“Obviously, 20 years ago, we only had 4 or 5 stations. Now we have 6 and we’re planning for a 7th and even more in the future after that just depending on how areas of the beach get annexed, where the call volume is needed, those kinds of things,” said Evans.

Of the six stations in Myrtle Beach, Lt. Evans says the station off Mr. Joe White Avenue is their busiest.

That’s the same area News13’s told you police have had problems with people buying and selling heroin

Evans says about 1/3 of the calls for the entire city are in that area.