Senior station officer Troy Cleverley said the station received over 70 calls last month. 

"We usually receive about 500 calls per year and we are nearly at that number now, despite being only a few months into the year," he said.

"There's a few contributing factors, including the introduction of Emergency Medical Response (EMR) and the expansion of our response area in order to offer greater support to the volunteer brigades around us." 

The EMR program sees firefighters co-respond with paramedics to a select group of priority Triple-0 calls.

Mr Cleverley said the high number of March calls related to motor vehicle accidents, structure fires and emergency medical responses. 

He said notable call outs included a structure fire that destroyed a large shed and three classic cars in Hamilton and a house fire in Nullawarre that tragically killed a two-year-old child.

Mr Cleverley said the brigade had also seen an increase in staff and resources.

"We now have ten firefighters and three appliances per shift. We used to have just one appliance, so if we went outside of our boundary we were leaving Warrnambool uncovered," he said.

"An increase in staff and resources means we're maintaining fire coverage in the Warrnambool city area while also responding to volunteers and providing that greater service to the community."

Mr Cleverly said firefighters were coping well with the increase in call outs, as well as the responsibility of medical emergencies.

"EMR is an interesting and challenging responsibility as it requires a totally different skill set," he said. "We're working really well with Ambulance Victoria and I think they appreciate the support. Of course it can be stressful on our guys as it isn't necessarily what they signed up for."

Mr Cleverly said the brigade was very supportive of each other and were always working to increase their skills. 

"We've got a lot of staff currently taking promotional courses at the moment. When we're not on the job we've got people actually out the back doing drills," he said.

"Our skills are so diverse now, from structure fires to bush fires, hazmat and high angle rope, trench and confined space rescue.

"Take all of that and add EMR to the mix and we are getting a lot more call outs than we would have 12 months ago."

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