The January winter storm kept the Valley Regional Fire Authority extremely busy.

The VRFA responded to a total of 645 service calls from Jan. 17-21, an average of 129 calls per day during the storm period. On Jan. 19, the VRFA received 380 calls.

To put it in perspective, according to Kimberly McDonald, VRFA public education and information officer, the VRFA responds to an average of approximately 40 calls on a “normal” day throughout Auburn, Algona and Pacific.

Most of the increased calls were for wires down, trees into wires, arcing wires, and trees and branches falling into homes and roadways, McDonald said.

“We added four additional units to handle the influx of calls on Jan. 19 and set up a Department Operations Center (DOC) to prioritize and manage the calls,” she said. “Jan. 19 was a record day for 911 responses for the VRFA. No other storm or event have kept us that busy before.”