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What color fire engines should go first? Or will you be the one leaving...
Original Post Title: Are firefighters considered sacrosanct anymore? Which garnered 3 replies...
"We now only respond for true medical emergencies, and that’s cut our run count back by 1,000 a year, and has kept apparatus and manpower in place for real emergencies.”
An old friend and fellow hazmat guy who is now a local Fire Chief shared a really good article entitled, "Firefighters Feel the Squeeze of Shrinking Budgets, In small and large cities alike, firefighters have gone from heroes to budget bait", where problems are identified and discussed including the scenario of having to cut back on general services to keep fire station doors open. Something has to change with the types of services we provide as well as compromise being necessary on the parts of both unions and municipalities is the authors opinion, do you agree?
Does cutting back on the types of responses seem like something that would work for your jurisdiction to save money and keep apparatus in place for "real" emergencies?
What is not mentioned in the article are the cost savings for driving your apparatus less. This savings that include less fuel and maintenance needs could translate into significant savings.
Up until now, the fire service has been free to do pretty much anything they felt was necessary toward providing increased public safety and emergency response. It appears that firefighters are no longer sacrosanct anymore... If there was ever a time for fire departments to focus on public relations and image, now is the time. Other departments (non-fire) will be competing for money and funding, and we better be on our toes.
As the Santa Barbara City Fire Chief, Andy DiMizio says, "We need to really look hard at what we do, and do it better."
CBz
mschlags@gmail.com
"Failure to prepare is preparing for failure, be prepared... your life may depend on it."
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Russ on
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I knew a dept that stopped running EMS calls unless they were fire related as a cost saving move. The day the response policy went into effect, that evening the chief of department went out for dinner with his family and had a heart attack and died 2 blocks from one of his firehouses.
Dispatch was blamed for not sending the FD as soon as EMS had him packaged and advised who they had and were getting redy for transport. The communications chief wanted to burn the calltaker for "not asking who the patient was" and the dispatcher for not sending the FD at all. It was later disclosed that the Communications Chief wanted to appease everyone and save face instead of admitting that the response policy was in place and the way the call went down was simply a sad occurance.
While sad it was sort of funny that a chief in the name of cost saving enacted a policy that killed him...first
I was taught that EMS is what endears the public to the fire department and it does it best because on a medical call you are dealing with a "person" not a building that if burned is going to be rebuilt. People rememeber the personal touch of someone that helped them when they need it the most.
In my county if some departments stopped running medicals they would only respond to a few calls a year. Others run so many medicals people forget they are a fire department.
In a cost saving move most departments have gone to what is called, Life Threatening Emergencies Response"(LTER)" cardiac, respirtory, unconscious, trauma(s), car accidents and when EMS will have an extended response time and (at the descretion of the dispatch supervisor) when they think the FD will be of some help.
This response came about when a department got toned out for a "foot pain" at 4am and the next day a "headache" and 3am. They complained about being dispatched to "BS" calls and the powers came up with the LTER which almost everyone is on to this day.
I have to agree with you Ralph that EMS can save a FD but the cost of running it creates another cash drain. EMS here is a stand alone department and charges for service. I cannot quote numbers because I have no idea how many skip on paying but I guess they are doing ok because they have a nice fleet and a great support system. Considering the cost of running an EMS system, how would you best suggest a FD continue to fund its operating costs in hard times when people have declining incomes? i would suggest farming out BLS calls to private companies. Where i am now, our EMS does everything except hospital to home transport which is done by a private company.
This was a great topic!
PS: i was the dispatcher in the second paragraph (sigh)
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Permalink Reply by Jason on
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Is it me or do those guys on the line fighting a structure fire appear to be wearing wildland gear?
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Permalink Reply by Jay Nicholson on
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Not just you, but during wildland incidents, this is the PPE worn. That one crew could be assign a whole block of homes for 'structural' protection. Save what you can, which sometimes isn't much.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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Ok Ralph... I cannot believe that folks don't take the fiscal issues seriously and start making plans on how to protect their jobs and livelihoods. This post reflects some pretty harsh things that I predict will become a reality.
However, with that said, this post may not be of interest to many here on the FFN because they are involved only as volunteer firefighters, or are juniors. For folks that have been hired full time as a professional firefighter, this post should be a lot more relevant than word games, helmet color or even as the new post title suggests, engine color...
Which will be the first to go... along with your job.
I sure hope folks wake up Ralph.
CBz
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During last years SoCal firestorms, entire trailer parks were engulfed in flames, kind of like dominos. Radiant heat from the adjacent brush fire caught mobile homes on the perimeter and they simply torched from one to another.
Why were wildland firefighters trying to save these homes? Because there were not enough firefighters in a Type I engine to go around. Budget cuts... Go figure...
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who knows... to be there is totally overwhelming Ralph...
Photo above shows Orange County Firefighters overrun by a flame front that resulted in an emergency fire shelter deployment.
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Their circumstances and resources for fighting their fire suck. I would hate to be faced with what these guys are.
Glad I am in New England.
I'd like to find out more on their fire in the picture though.
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how silly not to take advantage of this type of cost recovery...
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Permalink Reply by Eric B on
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My department had "had" an EMS division but like anywhere the powers that be decided to split and allow them to incorporate themselves , now they are lucky if they even get a truck out on the 3rd tone out even when there is a paid crew sleeping there , just my $0.02
And as always CBz Great topic that people should really pay more attention to
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AGREE! but most insurance (down here) covers about 50 to 100 dollars of the cost. (i was a FF/EMT and the county runs EMS transp. system)-the last time i looked a full code was about a two grand and a trauma was about a grand and a half. it is my understanding that most insurance will not cover the full cost of an ambulance ride. i agree with you about charging because its fair you are not paying for something you are not using, you are paying when you use it. i'm not trying to be a smart ass when i say that charging causes the department to hire / create a division to deal with that and in bad times i have heard of departments putting lein's against persons for the money and that creates another ball of poop that generates bad feelings against the FD. do you see a soultion in the form of an EMS tax based on the cost of operation against last years cost? in florida we have an unusual situation. in the case of my district, we have I75 running through it and an MVA involving tourists from out of state sometimes causes a billing problem for EMS. if you get flown out, thats another 20 grand. i've often wondered how departments collect on that because it was proposed that we charge an FD response charge for only the interstate. (i laughed at that thinking "a toll at the district boundry would be easier").
*sidenote*-my son fell at the kennedy space center and had to be transported by KSC-EMS (they had a five minute response time) and when i asked about the cost for the transpotrt, i was reminded that the KSC was a government facility so its a freebee. (no he didnt trip over the shuttle).
my point is that taxiation seems fair because everyone pays and has access. excessive users/abusers would be the issue there
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dont get me started with that Ralph, remember nicholson's response to the health care he was getting in the bucket list? SHOCKED that "he had to share a room" instead of having a private room. " thats the way he set it up as head of the hospital corp. my point is, the bean counters dont care until its "them" and then it "has" to change
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Just another example of how firefighters are being used at the expense of public safety... Again, folks need to watch what's happening right under their noses.
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