As temperatures drop and people begin turning on their furnaces and sparking their fireplaces for the winter, fire departments in Butler County prepare for an increase in calls for smoke in homes.

Butler Bureau of Fire Captain Jim Kaufman said unchecked furnaces and fireplaces can burn too much upon their first use of the season, causing not structure fires, but instead smoke-filled homes.

“We don't do a lot of fires in town, but we have a lot of people call about smoke indoors,” he said. “When people start their furnaces up and haven't been cleaned, that dust can start burning.”

According to Kaufman, calls for service typically stay the same or even increase during the winter compared to the rest of the year. Cold temperatures can lead to longer heating processes in homes, and snowy or frozen roads can result in more car crashes than usual.

In response, the fire bureau prepares its trucks for the cold weather.

“We really just make sure the tires are good and our brake systems are working,” Kaufman said.

Slippery Rock Volunteer Fire Company Chief Ryan Hanchosky said calls for vehicle crashes go up in the winter, but not substantially.

When crashes occur, car passengers often come out unscathed because of the extra care they take while driving in snowy conditions.

“Sometimes we get ice storms that'll give us a high volume of service calls,” Hanchosky said. “We do get calls for a lot of cars that slide off the roadways, and when we get there there are no injuries.”

When there are calls for fires, departments have to be prepared to work in cold conditions. Kaufman said the bureau of fire asks that people help shovel out fire hydrants after a heavy snowfall, when crews are unable to get to them on their own.

He also said a truck's water pumps could potentially freeze under certain conditions, but that hasn't happened in years.

“My first year, we had a fire and the pump on the aerial froze,” Kaufman said. “Other than that, we haven't had any issues with freezing in a while.”

According to Hanchosky, firefighters are trained to work in different conditions, and that goes for their truck driving as well. Safety measures built into fire engines also help to prevent them from becoming the subject of vehicle crash calls, he said.

“There are times when the trucks can slide, but it's nothing too extreme,” Hanchosky said. “We use more extreme caution, take the brakes or the braking assistant devices off to keep from hitting the brakes too hard and usually the drivers are able to prevent any injuries.”