Bicker said the brigade had so far attended five callouts in 2018 and four of those were during New Year's Eve festivities.
"The first three calls were between midnight and 4am, there was a bonfire, a couch fire and a fire on the beach," he said.
"A lot of people were ignoring the fire ban on New Year's Eve."
Bicker said the first callouts for 2018 were similar to what the brigade attended this time last year, which was four callouts by January 2.
The fire brigade attended 33 car crashes in 2017 and 19 in 2016, Bicker said.
"The medical calls went up quite a bit too," he said.
Maketu fire chief Shane Beech said the Maketu Volunteer Fire Brigade received 237 callouts in 2017 which beat the brigade's highest record of 230 about two or three years ago.
"It is certainly a big ask and demand on our volunteers with that many callouts," he said.
Beech said a lot of last year's callouts were medical.
"We seem to be doing a lot more motor vehicle crashes too," he said.
Katikati fire chief Joe Manukau said the number of fire callouts was down, but the number of medical calls was "definitely up last year".
"Our core business has been reduced through everybody being more aware of fire safety and education," Manukau said.
Omokoroa volunteer fire chief Ian Blunt said the brigade's firefighters received 93 callouts last year and their medical responders attended 108 which he said was "a little bit higher" than previous years.
Pukehina fire chief Errol Watts said the volunteer brigade received 96 callouts which was down on last year.
"We normally do a bit over 100," he said.
Watts said the majority of callouts were medical.
"Seventy per cent of our calls are medical related," he said. "But they can be medical aspects from car accidents too. We are one of the first responder brigades in the country, so we have been doing it for a long time."
Waihi fire chief Moe Stevens said the Waihi Volunteer Fire Brigade attended 234 callouts last year which was about 20-30 more than last year.
Stevens said the callouts were to "all sorts of things" including medical, car accidents and fires.
"You never know what you're going to get called to," he said.
Bay of Plenty coast area manager Murray Binning said there had been a spike in medical callouts since the New Zealand Fire Service signed a Memorandum of Understanding with St John Ambulance in 2014.
Binning said local fire brigades were still seeing an increase in medical callouts heading into the New Year and a decrease in the number of structural fires.
"That is because of the positive education efforts being put into making the public more aware of the fire dangers," he said.
Fire engines were all equipped with defibrillators and firefighters were first aid trained which enabled them to attend life-threatening medical callouts and administer CPR, deal with trauma and broken bones.
HOW MANY CALLOUTS?
Papamoa Volunteer Fire Brigade: 164
Maketu Volunteer Fire Brigade: 237
Omokoroa Volunteer Fire Brigade: Firefighters: 93, medical: 108
Pukehina Volunteer Fire Brigade: 96
Waihi Volunteer Fire Brigade: 234
Katikati Volunteer Fire Brigade: 150 Fire: 65 Medical: 28 and Motor vehicle crashes: 57
