SFD data shows fewest opioid incidents since 2017; people call for more Narcan stations
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — The Springfield Fire Department issued its latest annual report, which has data that shows SFD responded to the least number of opioid incident calls since they began tracking that data in 2018.
SFD gave out 185 Narcan kits in 2024, a 268% increase from 2023, when they responded to 282 opioid incidents.
Ozarks First spoke to two people who have had to use Narcan for a drug overdose, and while they say it's not just SFD handing out kits, the effort is saving lives.
'I would not be here if there wasn't Narcan stations across town,' Laura Weger says as she discusses her sobriety. 'I'm dead set to stay sober this time.'
Weger was revived with two doses of Narcan several months ago, and that's when she used that revival to revive her life.
'I laid there for two days and I still came out of it. I didn't just come right out of it. I literally lay there motionless for two days. When I did come out of it, everything was on autopilot and I immediately got sick and it was hard to understand everything for a while, but that that was my eye opener. That's when I decided [to get clean], and I walked 17 and a half miles to get into inpatient care,' Weger said.
Weger says sometimes people don't call for help before working with Narcan but does believe the number of overdose have gone down overall.
'They think, 'I don't want to get in trouble. I have this on me. I have that on me, I have warrants',' Weger said. 'Lives are being saved.'
Rusty Williams tells Ozarks First he's been revived 15 times with Narcan, some by first responders, and says that motivated him to turn his life around.
'I had broken bones and was prescribed opiates legally by a doctor. Once those ran out, I wanted more. Started experimenting with street opiates, switching over to heroin and eventually to fentanyl,' Williams said. 'I got involved in a recovery program called Broken Branches. Now, I'm a leader there, but I started to see how it affected my family and my friends, and eventually just kind of got tired of it. Sick and tired and wanted something different, and now I have ten months in recovery.'
He says it makes sense the number of incidents are down, because there are more kits on the streets.
'I think they are responding to fewer because people are readily have access to naloxone. I know for myself personally, at one time I was in the middle of an overdose in the passenger seat of a vehicle, I went to Walgreens and had to come up with $130 to get the dose. Now I can go there and get it for free,' Williams said. 'I'm starting to see more people are just keeping it in their backpacks, in their car, having it with them, handing it out. I've been saved with it and I've also saved other people with it.'
Weger and Williams believe Narcan stations should be more present in town, and more kits should be on the streets, and potentially save more lives.
'I think is extremely important, not only in my personal life, but what I see in the community for people to just have more awareness on naloxone in general, even people that don't struggle with addiction or will necessarily even know anyone, I feel like they can keep a kit in their car or give them out to people where they think they might be needed,' Williams said.
'I think we should have access to it at gas stations, on the counters, the library and anywhere that people may come and go,' Williams added. 'I feel like we should have access to it because once the life is saved, that person then has a chance to change their life, reunite with their family, and be a productive member in the community.'
'I think it's not just the fire department or even places like [Better Life in Recovery] that we hand out, like hundreds of hundreds like there's boxes coming in and there's a free station right outside. If you check it like once a week, you'll see that it's emptied and then we refill it. Like even in our meetings, like people are coming up and they're getting handfuls,' Weger said. 'We need more awareness, we need education. I think if they if they don't keep handing it out, you know, then there's going to be a lot more people die.'
Weger's desire for more kits on the streets also stems from her friend who passed away, unable to get help during an overdose.
'I lost my best friend that way. Nobody identified her. They didn't call the cops. They didn't call the ambulance. They didn't call nothing. They let her die, and she could have been saved. She could have, but people are uneducated and they did not have the resources and nobody had Narcan.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘Calming Box' sparks controversy in Aurora
AURORA, Mo. — Parents in Aurora are outraged after photos of a 'calming box' inside one of the school buildings surfaced online. 'When we were first starting [our child] with getting help in the school and the special needs room for his ADHD, we were told there was a sensory room where there were like weighted blankets and puppets and squished balls and stuff like that, but nothing even remotely close to a calming box,' said parents Mikayla Thomas and Tiya McKinney. Photos show a box made of wood, with padding on the walls and the door, which does not appear to have any latch of any kind. For Thomas and McKinney, they weren't aware of the box, and say it's a source of trauma. 'I turned it around to [my son], and he just froze completely and started crying. Whenever I asked him was like, Have you ever seen this? Do you know what this is? He couldn't even talk. He couldn't even talk, and he just started crying,' McKinney said. 'Seeing your nine year old break down like that, it hurts for one, and it makes you feel like crap because you had no idea that this was going on and you couldn't protect your kid,' Thomas said. Ozarks First reached out to the Aurora School District. Dr. Ben Yocom, the district's superintendent, gave this statement: 'The Aurora R-VIII School District is aware of a recent social media post by an individual using the pseudonym 'Splater Butt' concerning a calming space located within one of the District's behavioral classrooms. The post includes a photograph of a calming space and refers to it as a 'box.' To clarify, the calming space (sometimes referred to as the calming box) does not include a top (roof) but rather is completely open. Students in the calming space can stand straight up, stretch out their arms completely, safely navigate the padded walls in the calming space, and are completely visible and accessible while inside the calming space. There is no locking mechanism on the door of the calming space and no student is left alone or unsupervised in the space. The calming space is an established component of the classroom environment designed to support the behavioral and emotional regulation of students. The District remains committed to ensuring safe, lawful, and developmentally appropriate support for all students. As such, the calming space is utilized in two capacities: (1) voluntarily by students as a self-regulation strategy; and (2) as part of a restrictive behavioral intervention consistent with Missouri Revised Statutes § 160.263 and Board of Education Policy JGGA: Seclusion and Restraint. As transparency and student safety remain priorities in the District's behavioral support practices, each school year, the District provides parents and guardians with information regarding the calming space, including the opportunity to view the area in person. Parents who have questions, concerns, or complaints regarding the calming space are encouraged to contact Superintendent Dr. Ben Yocom at 417-678-3373.' Thomas and McKinney say they don't care if the box or space has a roof. 'Regardless of if there's an open top, it really doesn't matter. There are a hundred different ways that I could explain that a child could get hurt in that thing, with or without a top, with or without a door, with or without a teacher present in there. It's just not safe. It's not okay. It's not safe,' Thomas said. Thomas and McKinney say until changes are made, their kids won't be part of the Aurora School District. 'I feel like the only way that we would feel comfortable putting our kids back in this school district is if we have a 100% certainty that this is being removed,' McKinney said. 'It's not okay. The way they're using it is completely wrong.' The two say contacting parents is the best way to maintain a level of trust between parents and school staff. 'Call. Let us take care of our child. If you can't ultimately calm them down, give us a chance. We've raised them. We've been with them their whole life. Every single day. We are with them. You're only with them four days out of the week. Don't traumatize them,' Thomas said. Thomas says she's meeting with an attorney on Wednesday to discuss potential litigation and encourages any parents who have endured a similar situation with the district, specifically regarding the calming box/space, to reach out over social media through her fiancé's Facebook account. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Yahoo
Naloxone boxes installed across Berkeley County to combat rising overdose deaths
MONCKS CORNER, S.C. (WCBD) – A new initiative to combat the opioid crisis is now underway in Berkeley County, where public access boxes containing Naloxone, commonly known as Narcan, are being installed in high-traffic community spaces. The boxes, known as 'Nalox Boxes,' offer free, anonymous, 24/7 access to the life-saving medication, which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose within seconds. They're being installed outside churches, fire stations, community centers, and local businesses throughout the county. 'This sends a powerful message,' said Dean Stephens, Director of Development at WakeUp Carolina. 'There's no stigma attached to it. We're all part of this community. We're all in this fight.' The program is a collaboration through the Berkeley County Overdose Fatality Review Board, which includes EMS, law enforcement, public health agencies, and recovery nonprofits. So far in 2025, 31 people have died from drug overdoses in Berkeley County, 17 involving fentanyl, according to the Berkeley County Coroner's Office. That's a more than 21% increase compared to the same period in 2024. 'My goal is to work less in these situations,' said Berkeley County Coroner Darnell Hartwell. 'We want to stop the deaths and provide support to the families who go through this tragic situation.' The boxes are maintained by partnering agencies who will routinely restock and monitor them. WakeUp Carolina and the Ernest E. Kennedy Center are among several community distributors responsible for providing free naloxone and overdose education. 'We believe this initiative is just one small step toward addressing the opioid epidemic,' said Rihanna Thomas, a clinical counselor at the Ernest E. Kennedy Center. 'By expanding access to Narcan, we believe we can save lives.' County leaders say they plan to install at least 25 Nalox Boxes by the end of summer, with hopes of expanding the program even further. The ultimate goal is to have one within walking or biking distance for every home in Berkeley County. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Yahoo
AMR says May 'particularly deadly' for overdoses in Manchester, Nashua
May was a 'particularly deadly' month for fatal overdoses in the state's two largest cities, according to data released Wednesday by American Medical Response (AMR). AMR medics responded to a total of 43 suspected opioid overdoses in Nashua and Manchester last month — 31 in Manchester and 12 in Nashua. Eleven of those incidents were fatal; nine in Manchester, two in Nashua. Chris Stawasz, regional director of AMR, said 11 deaths in one month are nearly twice the average of monthly deaths reported over the past year. 'October 2023 was the last time we observed a double-digit loss of life in a single month between the two cities,' Stawasz said in a statement. Twenty-six percent of the suspected opioid ODs AMR medics responded to in May were fatal, data shows. An Overdose Response Strategy Situational Awareness Bulletin from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued June 6 reported a surge in both fatal and non-fatal overdoses across Connecticut, Stawasz said. According to the bulletin, between May 16 and June 6 there were 61 suspected fatal overdoses statewide in Connecticut, with 'noticeable clustering' along the I-91 and I-95 corridors and in the cities of New Haven and Hartford. 'That Connecticut surge seems to correlate to the surge in deaths we experienced here in Nashua and Manchester,' Stawasz said. 'The bulletin suggests that polysubstance combinations and higher concentrations of fentanyl may be contributing factors to the current spike in overdose deaths.' May did continue the recent trend of lower overall opioid overdose totals in both communities, 16% below the rolling 12-month average, data shows. Manchester continues to trend well below last year (down 34%) for total opioid overdoses and 13% below last year for suspected fatal overdoses. Nashua also continues to be trending lower in total opioid ODs (down 9%) but trends significantly higher (up 69%) in suspected opioid related deaths. In 2024, Manchester and Nashua recorded the lowest number of overdoses in a year since the COVID pandemic. There were 710 suspected overdoses in Manchester and Nashua in 2024 — 526 of those occurred in Manchester, 184 in Nashua. Sixty-six overdoses were fatal in 2024 — 46 in Manchester, 20 in Nashua. Nashua recorded both the lowest number of suspected opioid overdoses and lowest number of suspected opioid deaths in one year since AMR began tracking the data in 2015. 'Keep in mind that due to the nature of the opioid epidemic and its clear history of unpredictability, it is always possible that the trend of lower numbers could quickly change — as evidenced this month,' Stawasz said. 'These seemingly marked statistical improvements by no means signal that the opioid epidemic is 'under control' or close to elimination. With Narcan now widely available and free, it is highly likely that many overdoses are continuing to occur, but without 911 intervention.' According to AMR, of the 43 suspected opioid overdoses reported in May in both Manchester and Nashua, 53% occurred in a home or residence, 21% happened in a public building or area and 9% were in vehicles or in a roadway. Five percent were in a jail or prison. Two percent occurred in a hotel or motel. In 21% of the overdoses, a bystander or member of the public administered Narcan before EMS personnel arrived. Overall, 42% of those involved in suspected opioid overdoses gave no fixed address or said they were homeless. Of the 43 suspected overdoses in both cities, 58% were males, 42% females. The majority of victims, 72%, were Caucasian. Ninety-three percent of overdose response calls involved a first encounter with an individual and 7% involved repeat encounters. In New Hampshire, anyone can seek substance use disorder treatment by accessing the N.H. Doorway program 24/7. To access the N.H. Doorway program, call 211 at any time of the day or night, or visit If you believe someone is overdosing, call 911 immediately.