Comments on: What do Firefighters do? They sure don’t fight fires

By: Steve Darden

Steve Darden — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 08:38:32 +0000

Thanks for your insider perspective.

> I did see a resistance to rolling just an ambulance to a scene when you knew it was a medical call as there were MUCH fewer ambulances versus fire engines.

I’m not sure what that means. Is it that the departments are “under equipped” with ambulances to cope with the normal workload?

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By: Greg Merrill (@merrillmatter)

Greg Merrill (@merrillmatter) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 00:18:41 +0000

(As a previous volunteer fire fighter)
All the professional fire fighting districts I know of require all fire fighters to also be EMT’s so there is quite a bit of cross training for the medical calls. From my experience, yes, the VAST majority, over 90% of the calls we received were medical related.

The challenge becomes when you do have a fire / car accident, etc. When you need ‘big iron’ (fire engine, ladder truck) and lots of crew to effectively stop the fire and rescue people.

Otherwise, for the other 90% an ambulance is more than adequate. I did see a resistance to rolling just an ambulance to a scene when you knew it was a medical call as there were MUCH fewer ambulances versus fire engines.

By: Fred Cox

Fred Cox — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 03:39:47 +0000

I had read of this. It’s like the old railroad featherbedding and cabooses on trains.

Fred