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The department first started using naloxone in 2016 and last year the firefighters responded to over 1,100 overdose patients, using the temporary antidote 318 times. Calgary fire says that it has administered naloxone to an average of one patient every day this year.

Other months in 2018 have also set records, according to the fire department. It says it responded to 139 calls in March and 134 in January. Prior to April 2015, Calgary fire crews never responded to more than 10 opioid calls in a single month.

Photo by Gavin Young/Postmedia

“It’s just the proliferation and the availability of opioids such as fentanyl. We know this,” Dongworth said.

“If you look at the social agencies who are dealing with this, if you look at the law enforcement that are dealing with this, when we talk to Alberta Health Services . . . everyone’s seeing the same thing. So, in some ways, this isn’t surprising. The only question all the time is when will we start to see these numbers go in the other direction, which I think, of course, is what every Calgarian would want.”

In the first two months of the year, EMS responded to 237 opioid calls in Calgary, according to Alberta Health.

Provincial data shows the number of fentanyl-related deaths is rising in Alberta. As of May 6, 228 people had died from fentanyl-related overdoses this year, the province said last month. That put Alberta on track to average 12.6 deaths per week, up from 11.2 in 2017, when 583 people died.

Dongworth said that one silver lining seems to be that the rate of increase is slowing down year-over-year when it comes to the number of overdose calls that firefighters respond to.

“The increase of 2017 to 2018 suggests there’s a bit of a slow down,” he said. “Hopefully that will continue to be the case, where next year we’ll see low growth or 10 per cent growth rather than 20 per cent growth, and it might start to give us some confidence. Of course, what we need to see is minus-years, where we see less and less.”

shudes@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/SammyHudes