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Policy question for those that do both fire and ems
I am a Capt fire side and just a driver on the EMS side. Although both agencies belong to the village we are very very separate (actually that's why I was willing to drive - as an olive branch if you will). I knew the EMS Chief was an a__, but I did it anyhow.
Whenever there is an MVA or a fire we usually get more than the on duty EMS crew.
I know of a couple nearby EMS agencies that encourage their firefighters to be firefighters first. What do you do and what do you think?
Whenever there is an MVA or a fire we usually get more than the on duty EMS crew.
I know of a couple nearby EMS agencies that encourage their firefighters to be firefighters first. What do you do and what do you think?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Greg Ramsdell on
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Not sure what you're asking here. Are the firefighters showing up for the EMS calls? Is it totally Vol? If wasn't an EMT I probably wouldn't show up for many EMS calls either.
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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I say sit down like adults and work it out, maybe combo training so all can assist at the scene regardless of uniforms, or even cross manning equipment. Many jurisdictions have the same problem as you describe of: very, very, very separate mentalities but realistically the victim(s) are the one who is going to suffer in the end.
One day that could be your loved one...
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Permalink Reply by Joe Stoltz on
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This is an excellent question, because our department does both fire and BLS transporting ambulance. As an assistant chief AND an EMT I can find myself in the position of trying to decide which hat to put on.
There is usually not a question for medical calls or structure fires, but MVAs can be interesting. If I am first on scene at a wreck, do I render care or assume command and wait for the ambulance? If I'm the only EMT on scene and the ranking chief in the district, do I call for another ambulance or pass command to another officer and transport the patient?
These are good things to have worked out ahead of time before the bell rings. My suggestion would be to talk to the EMS chief and develop an understanding of who will do what in various scenarios. I don't know if concrete policies can be written to cover all of them but an agreement that everyone will try to do the right thing may be best.
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Permalink Reply by ashfire on
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I know of a few places where the fire and ems have separate buildings. One area, another county, the volunteer dept has three stations.
One is fire only with engines, brush, ladder truck and heavy rescue truck, the second is both fire and ems and the third is only ems.
Now I would think the dept has something worked out about their operations with three stations.
Now we have stations that in our county where the dept's main station is fire only and the sub station is fire and ems.
Then we have a city that has a fire and ems dept that are separate but they operate in something to see.
The fire station stayed fire only for a long time until they were forced to take a ambulance by the last county fire chief who has been forced to retire. The ems rescue squad had ambulances, a heavy rescue truck, off road and water rescue operations. Then they went and bought a rescue pumper so that they could have a backup to their rescue truck but they also wanted to run fire calls in the city. The two stations always seem to be at odds even thou their memberships have been in both stations and leadership.
Now my brother lived in a town in another state where the fire and rescue squad are separate and their buildings are in the same parking lot in town. The town police share the building with the fire dept.
They are working on building a new public safety building for the town and the fire, ems and police are suppose to move into the same building.
They have to have one big enough for three engines, tanker, ladder truck, two rescue trucks (heavy and medium) three ambulances, trailers, boat, brush unit and off road rescue SUV and who knows what else they have.
I wonder how they will workout those crews if they share the building.
Heres one I forgot. Our county has a station with three volunteer fire and ems companies sharing the same building.
They some how have worked out who is the chief and officers of the station for the three depts but they still have separate meetings for the volunteer companies. They attend the county meetings has four depts.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Shaw on
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I think each member needs to make that choice personally, however there are other factors. As a Fire Captain, it would initially seem more important to have you with FD than EMS. However, if there is already another officer going and the ambulance is waiting for a driver, it is obviously more critical for you to get the rig there. To a certain extent this must be handled on a case by case basis.
However, if a member consistently responds with one agency over another, then they can and should make a formal choice. If they can meet the requirements with both agencies and not have conflicts, more power to them, but if joint calls are always leading to the same choice AND that choice is causing a problem for the other agency, it needs to be dealt with.
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Permalink Reply by blair4630 on
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We do fire/rescue and QRS. I think the more of our ff's are cross trained the better, but it's optional if you want to be or not. I take medical calls because I'm there to serve the community, but to be honest I'd really rather be running fire calls, because although I LOVE EMS....that's my full-time job...when the pager goes off at home, I'd rather be doing something that requires turnout gear. But again, when the pager goes off and someone's having a medical emergency, I'm part of their fire dept. and I'm going to come to their aid during their emergency.
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Permalink Reply by Shawn M. Steinschreiber on
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We have a problem close to this, our dept. is both Fire & EMS, most members are firefighters/Emt. We only assign on duty crews to for the medic. Fire trucks are first come first serve. How ever when a fire comes in the medic crew will usually abandon the medic for the fire trucks. This is not a big issue however when an MVA comes in some of the people want to abandon the medic again for the Big red trucks.. I feel if you are signed up on the medic you need to take be on it. Even for a fire if you get out there and have no patients you can report to IC for further instructions we carry SCBAs on th medic.
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Permalink Reply by Paul Montpetit on
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We run Fire/Rescue...many of our people are both certified Firefighters and certified EMT's or higher....we do what we are assigned to do...If there is a need to put on the medical role then it gets put on....If there is a need to maintain the Firefighter role...so be it....the IC makes the call.......isn't this what Command is supposed to do.....Command...? Paul
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Paul are you Vol. or Paid?
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Permalink Reply by Robert Owens on
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Here its simple.....no matter rank, or experience level if you are siigned to the ambulance then you are on the ambulance and when you arrive at a scene you do what an ambulance does.
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Vollie....
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Permalink Reply by Matthew on
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Our department is strictly fire, every fd in my county is strictly fire. We're one of the only 2 remaining counties in Alabama whose departments don't run any ems. Our county has a rescue squad which runs all ems in our county and does transports. However, several departments in the county (mine included) are about to start running ems, strictly in a support role though, county rescue gets paged first with the fd being paged second to provide bls until the ambulance arrives..
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