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."
You've (or a family member) never bought a new car/truck in your life?
Are Firemen/Police Officer's suppose to only drive 20-30 year old POS?
Jealous. Envy. A true Liberal.
Ed
We have a huge county fire dept and a huge ambulance service. We also have a large city fire dept. They all run their tails off 24/7.
Kern and hall, I’m familiar with both. Used to hang out in the Tejon area a lot.
Living a dozen miles west of the World Trade Center, the 9/11 legacy for firemen went beyond the guts they showed on that day. The worst part of it was when the new mayor (Bloomberg) was asked when they were going to start hiring to replace the 343 firemen killed, and he said they weren’t going to replace them; the department was overstaffed and the city had already been contemplating closing many firehouses. A close second was the number of firemen who insisted on having a detachment at Ground Zero to escort remains of firemen found in the rubble; the mayor (Giuliani initially) opposed the plan, but was abused in the press by the firefighter parasites. They got their way, and the number of early retirements/disabilities jumped as one of the unhealthiest groups of people started complaining of 9/11-related ailments.
Here in the rustbelt paid fire departments are a holdover from the days when we manufactured things in factories with real dangers; now they are simply workfare wealth transfers to firemen who sleep away their shifts in the firehouse before heading off to second jobs. Most NJ departments aren’t paid (those that are paid are mainly in fallen cities that haven’t manufactured anything in decades); attempts to regionalize them (so they can fire eight fires per year instead of two or three) are stiffly resisted by the unions. Taxpayers simply vote with their feet and leave...
Here in NJ our civil servants live much better than the people forced to pay them; I don’t regard such resentment as envious or jealousy. They are bankrupting taxpayers, driving them out of the state, and they view us simply as involuntary donors to be bled dry. They are an incestuous bunch, because people in the private sector face such different realities that a huge gulf exists between the two.
Just like unassimilated minorities, consider all of these parasites as votes in the bag for the Dems each election; they are part of the 47% that the Dems start off with each election cycle.
“because the unions prevented FDNY from buying modern equipment, because it would replace union jobs.”
On top of that, it would leave less for salaries; here in NJ many of our schools are crumbling because while we pay 75% of our property taxes (among the highest in the nation) to schools, it goes straight to teachers’ pockets. Administrators make a killing as well, but there are far less of them and they aren’t unionized.
In my town the firemen are paid very well - and live in surrounding areas without paid firemen. At the same time, they’ll carry on about how a paid department is necessary to protect your family - while their families’ lives are guarded by “jolly vollies”.
All true!!!
Just as an aside illegal immigrants are the firefighters biggest friends. Their ignorance is what starts at least 75% of residential fires today in the NYC-NJ area. They do it via illegal gas hookups and overloading electrical circuits with space heaters as they try and duplicate the tropical climate they grew up in.
Check out this blog from time to time—— http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/
Every code is violated with impunity by immigrants especially illegal basement conversions
http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/2009/11/fire-in-illegal-basement-apartment.html
My son says one of the reason the fire department in our town responds to medical emergencies is that the EMTs need help with increasingly common large people.
Also volunteer EMTs and firefighters often are about 60 years old and a lot are needed to get one job done
our fire department was able to leverage 9/11 into a new state of the art firehouse and turn our volunteer dept into a quasiprofessional organization.
I agree about the illegal apartments contributing to the fire problem, but there is usually an American that owns the property behind them. A neighboring town here conducted thorough inspections (checking every room of the homes) to find these illegal apartments; somehow the population was stagnant but the schools were bursting at the seams (anchor babies and such; many of the students weren’t Americans).
The space heaters are just a cheap solution to basements that aren’t connected to the central heating systems. There was a fire a few years back in one of the fairly wealthy towns on the NJ side of the Hudson River, and it turned out the basement had been rented out as rooms to single people from a few different countries. No plan for escape from a fire; a few of them died. In NYC a suit was brought against a property owner who did this when a firemen died in a maze of illegal modifications; he couldn’t get out (IIRC, another jumped several floors and lived, but was seriously hurt).
The better towns force the owner to remove the illegal apartments; in my county they are more likely to allow them and just increase the taxes on the homes. It really blights a neighborhood...
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