Posted on 04/12/2015 3:58:03 PM PDT by AlmaKing
When emergency apparatus roll out of fire houses across the state, lights flashing and sirens blaring, odds are the first responders on board aren't on their way to battle a blaze. Instead, more often than not they are called to medical emergencies, a trend fire officials say is mirrored across the country.
"There was a time when fighting fires was all we did," said Goffstown Fire Chief Richard O'Brien, President of the New Hampshire Association of Fire Chiefs. "Now we are more along the lines of all-hazard response systems."
"It seems more people are calling 911 for medical needs," said Nashua Assistant Fire Chief Steven Galipeau. "In the current medical climate, they get right in to see someone if they are transported to a health care provider by us, instead of waiting in a room to be seen if they go in on their own."
O'Brien said firefighters are available to respond to the medical calls because, simply put, there just aren't as many fires these days, a result of a fire prevention program launched in the 1980s.
"We have the ability to take on this role, due to staffing and resources," said O'Brien.
In Goffstown, between 70 and 80 percent of calls are medically related, O'Brien said. Similar numbers were reported by Concord.
In Manchester, firefighters responded to 14,392 medical calls in 2013, according to the fire department's annual report. The number rose to 15,907 in 2014, compared to 133 calls to structure fires. Ten years ago, the department responded to 10,390 medical calls, and 162 structure fires.
"We're up 1,000 calls in 2015, over last year at this time, and about 90 percent of those are medical calls," said Manchester Deputy Chief Daniel Goonan. "I would say a majority of those are drug-related."
In Laconia, the most recent annual report filed by the fire department shows crews responded to 3,896 medical emergency calls in 2014, compared to 125 actual fires.
According to the state Fire Marshal's office, 61 percent of all calls for service placed to New Hampshire fire departments in 2013 were for medical treatment, up from 60.6 percent in 2012 and 57.66 percent in 2011.
"It's something we're seeing across the country, not just in New Hampshire," said Deborah Pendergast, Director of the state's Fire Academy in Concord. "We've changed our course offerings and trainings to reflect the growing need, including training to administer Narcan to overdose victims, due to rising incidents involving heroin."
Nationally, the number of EMS calls to fire departments has increased nearly 300 percent since 1980, according to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).
In 1986, fire departments nationwide fielded 11.9 million calls - 19 percent fire-related, and 54 percent medical. By 2012, the most recent statistics available from the National Fire Production Association, departments received more than 31.8 million calls, of which 4.3 percent were fire-related and 68 percent medical. Other calls include false alarms, mutual aid and hazardous materials.
As emergency demands shift nationwide, more departments are diversifying their services by offering medical assistance, according to an NFPA release. About 65 percent of the country's fire departments offered emergency medical services in 2002, according to the U.S. Fire Administration, and would climb to 72 percent in 2014.
Hall said the increase can be traced to several factors, including growing awareness by the public awareness that fire departments often provide medical services.
"This is a trend we've seen since the 1970s," said O'Brien. "Back then, there were many fires. Over the years, thanks to changes in building codes, fire prevention efforts, the installation of smoke alarms and sprinklers, the number of fires has dropped dramatically."
Nashua Fire Rescue responds to about 300 fires a year in the city, but only 60 or so are considered large building fires, according to Nashua Assistant Fire Chief Steven Galipeau.
"The types of incidents we respond to cover a much wider range than we used to," said Galipeau. "There are a lot of hazardous material calls, motor vehicle accidents, and some are false alarms."
"Since 1996, every Nashua firefighter is an EMT-basic or higher. It's a qualification requirement to be hired," said Galipeau, who noted that most trucks carry defibrillators.
An EMT, short for emergency medical technician, is a first responder trained to provide medical treatment at the scene of an accident or other crisis.
"We are basically a first-responder EMS service, responding to life-threatening emergencies across the city," said Galipeau. "As the number of fires declines, the need for all-hazards responders continues to rise."
Don’t forget insurance company lobbyists. And the sprinkler and safety equipment manufacturers. Contractors too. We could throw a whole lot of interested and benefitting parties in the mix.
If the people who needed ambulances didn’t weigh 350+, they wouldn’t need 5 guys to move them.
Generally speaking, a fire station has 5 guys — 1 officer, 1 driver/pump operator and 3 firefighter/paramedics. Usual staffing is 2 on ambulance, 3 on engine/truck. When the patient needs advanced life support, the two paramedics work in the back of the ambulance and a third is transferred to the ambulance as a driver.
...but too often these days, they are dealing with people so big that they can’t get up once they have fallen. A friend of mine destroyed his back trying to get a 400 pounder out of a bathtub.
You know that not everyone is heavy.
We have a lot of old folks in our neighborhood who are frail and thin and all the trucks come out anyway. They are bored so they come out.
I agree. It’s called reserve capacity and it’s the most expensive thing in the world.
Our entirely military is almost entirely reserve capacity. They train to do things we all hope they’ll never have to do. But nobody accuses them of being lazy or unneeded because they aren’t actually fighting a war at the moment.
Fire departments are pretty much the same. Despite reductions in the frequency of fires, which did not start in the 80s, BTW, we still have to maintain the capacity to respond to a big one when it happens.
Unless somebody thinks it’s a good idea to get rid of the fire department because statistically there’s less chance they’re needed.
In our region probably 90% of the time it's medical aid, injury vehicle collisions which are responded to. Most fires here are generally brush fires which occurs maybe 3 months in summer.
In fact, it's typical to see half a dozen vehicles, including rescue trucks, cop cars, fire engines, and paramedics responding to a simple medical aid situation.
You bet.
In many venues if ya call 911 for whatever reason, expect a big time bill in the mail.
$$
I am glad they are there. Saving a life either way.
Yep. I’ve seen one maybe one or two structure fires in our area in the past 25 years.
Maybe that’s why the big number of responders show up for simple medical aid incidents. Plus they can bill much more.
Most cities now have codes and ordinances that keep fires to a minimum. Where the real fire-fighting action is is with Rural Volunteer Fire departments- many houses out in the country are old and haven’t been upgraded.
Well I see you have no idea what real firefighters do. Hubby is a 33 yr retired firefighter. Here they have always worked medical aids and are always first on scene. They then release the patient to the emt’s on the ambulance for transport to the hospital. They run round the clock here on medical aids.
Hubby worked for 15 years at the busiest station in our county. He’d come home after 2 days at work with just 4 hrs of sleep in those 48 hrs. He was also a watershed expert and his strike team was usually one of the first to go out. He worked almost every major fire in California where they called in additional teams from elsewhere.
I’d say it’s about time the rest of the country caught up to what real firefighters do. House fires, etc. are few and far between what they really do here.
See my post #30.
It’s the same here and they are busy busy round the clock. All our firefighters are emt’s. Then they turn them over to the paramedics of the ambulance company. Firefighters are always first on scene here.
yep, just like all gubermint employees it seems....teachers, cops, firefighters, all other bureaucrats, all play the game while we pay for it.
911 calls are a good profit center for the city. They won’t go ‘in network’ with insurers so they don’t have to accept negotiated rates. And since they are out of network, the insurer will pay very little. So the victim gets victimized.
BTW, it’s why people line up around the block when a position comes open. Of course they’re usually insider picks.
It’s a gold plated lottery job if you can land one.
Fireman pay is the biggest scam in the local budget....
Makes sense.
Contract ambulances work okay, if you get one of the better managed companies, and if you hold them to a quality standard. In situations where the city fathers go for low bidder, they can be a nightmare. I once dispatched for a company that was so underfunded that we only had one of the pieces of equipment we were supposed to have on each rig. Om pre-inspection nights, we’d move everything into the rig that was going to be inspected (and sometimes swap tires too), then spread it around again after that rig passed.
I remember one night when we had a run, my closest station’s rig was out of gas, and we’d just discovered the gas credit card had been cancelled for non-payment. They made a code 3 to me, I dashed out and handed them my last 5 bucks, they hit the gas station across the street, then went on their run. The company finally got shut down when the Highway Patrol pulled a surprise inspection on all the rigs at once.
The economics of the ambulance business are very marginal. They’re at their worst running 911 calls, because collection rates are low, and community supplementation rates are always being squeezed. The best company in my town back in the day was run by a guy who had a real commitment to the community, and a tow company. The tow company subsidized the ambulance business.
In my experience, we had about a 35 percent collection rate on 911 calls. We survived off of doing inter-hospital transfers where the patients were usually able to pay us.
It’s a government thing. An acquaintance who works for a department just bought a 60K truck. Not bad.
This was going on when I was a Police Officer in the late 70's, early 80's. The FD for one city provided service for two cities and the surrounding area. Most of the calls were Medical. We'd (the Officers) would hear the tone alert for every run.
The other major town in the area was doing the same thing. Med calls have always far outnumbered fire call. I guess it's only a problem now because a 'reporter' has taken notice of it.
Ed
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