During the Bogalusa City Council meeting Tuesday, Fire Chief Richard Moody said the Bogalusa Fire Department responded to a total of 150 calls in January.

“That’s high for us,” he said.

Three of the calls were for structure fires. There were four cooking fires, three grass fires, and two trash fires. The BFD also responded to seven motor vehicle accidents, 76 medical calls, 11 hazardous conditions calls, 27 calls to assist a citizen, and 17 false alarms, Moody said.

When asked if he thought some of the fires might be due to the unusually cold weather, Moody responded, “Yes, because of the ice we had a lot of power lines down it stayed cold for longer periods of time. For example, if their heaters were electric and their stove was gas, when the power went off their only way to get warm was from the gas stove.

“People will use anything for heat source when it gets cold. They just need to watch and monitor their heaters and stoves to make sure nothing is too close, which could cause a fire.  Because we are not accustomed to getting snow and ice, we had a few people that slipped and fell on the icy sidewalks.

“The increase in false alarms was due to the power lines being down. My suggestion is for citizens to take into consideration the condition of the weather when they have to go out driving or they are stuck in their homes, just be prepared same as we are when we have a hurricane. Stock up on food, water, medicines, and essentials, so you won’t have to get out in bad weather.”