Like in this story:
http://www.wboy.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=67062
And yes I know he’s a senator, but whatever, what the hell is with fire trucks showing up? I see this constantly, with the trucks showing up for a minor injury that has NOTHING to do with anything being on fire. It seems like a huge over-reaction to me.
Most(if not almost all) fire fighters are paramedics. They need the truck with them in case a call comes in, they don’t waste time going back for the truck.
This seems incredibly wasteful and expensive, mobilizing multiple fire trucks AND ambulances (not the article claims that more than one of each responded), just because someone fell down in their living room.
If you had a medical emergency, wouldn’t you want he NEAREST first responder to respond?
There were multiple ambulances (which one would assume are full of EMTs) dispatched. How many paramedics and EMTs does one old guy who got a little dizzy and fell down in his living room need? Seriously.
Yes. And I would also expect that the nearest one would then tell dispatch “we’re on it”. But instead, no, every single ambulance and fire truck races to a single location. How is that helpful for the next emergency call that comes in?
Redundancy in case the responder gets stuck in traffic or becomes otherwise delayed. Your post just reeks of bad karma dude.
I know last winter I was at the corner of Halsted and Diversey waiting on a bus and diagonal from me a lady slipped and fell. I saw her reach in her purse and pull out a cell phone, so I figure, “OK she’s OK,” then about 30 seconds later, I hear the siren of a firetruck pull out of the fire station located about a block away.
So the firetruck pulls up and the guys get out and help her.
I kept thinking “Why did they send a fire truck and not an ambulance. Heck they could’ve walked over, the firehouse was only a block away.”
Then the firemen treated her then I hear another siren and the ambulance comes out of the fire station and the firemen put her in that and take her away.
Clearly there was no fire, so I don’t know what they were doing but they did it. Fire truck first then ambulance
Actually I’ve wondered this one, too. It must be something to do with the dispatch. In my neighborhood, there is a fire station literally 2-3 blocks away, so I can see why the fire trucks show up at everything. But I have seen it in other places, too.
And yes, even when there’s not a fire! It’s weird.
That may be true in your jurisdiction, but it’s not everywhere (and certainly not in Canada).
The FD is a First Responder and often gets there prior to EMS.
The Fire Department doesn’t just respond to fires - that’s actually the smallest part of their jobs.
They are also accident clean up, jaws of life, HAZMAT (that’s why they show up for the oil that the neighbor has spilled on the road), traffic control and first responders. They also help control unruley patients (ever deal with a diabetic?) and patients that are in situtations where the medics can’t easily get them out of (like in a 10 story apartment with small stairways and no elevator). They also respond to leaks of multiple types - gas, CO, oil, fuel, etc.
They’re the catch-all of the tri-emergency team, so they generally are needed at many calls.
Most of my husbands calls are: 1) Accidents 2) False Alarms in buildings 3) Medical.
I called for an amubulance recently. I had severe pain in my stomach area.
The fire truck got there first, with paramedics or EMT’s who did some preliminary checks. Shortly after the ambulance arrived, with a paramedic or EMT who did more involved checks (including an EKG, as I understand).
I was carried downstairs to the amublance by firefighters using a special chair made for that purpose.
So while the ambulance was the main thing I needed (I went to the ER), the fire crew was able to offer help that augmented what the ambulance crew did.
In my area there are no separate EMT vehicles, and ambulances are private transport, essentially. So, FD shows up in a fire truck, EMTs on board assess the situation and start working on you, ambulances show up to cart you off to the hospital.
That makes no sense at all. Why not just send an ambulance and just leave the fire truck alone, parked where it is staged to most effectively respond to FIRES?
I don’t how things are done these days and in other parts of the country … but around here, 911 was instituted when I was in high school. One of the things they used to tell students about using 911 service was never to prank-call 911. They said that if you called 911 and hung up without saying anything, a police car, a fire truck, and an ambulance were sent to the location of the caller. More specifically, we were told that ANY & ALL 911 calls got this exact same response, regardless of whatever information the caller imparted. I guess the idea that a cop was coming was supposed to scare mischievous teens away from prank-calling.
Still in the same state, but in a different city: 20 years later, I called 911 for my wife (abdominal pain, rapid heartbeat, and shortness of breath). Only EMTs and an ambulance arrived at our apartment. Perhaps the police and fire vehicles were turned around at some point … or maybe dispatch these days is more specific to the emergency reported. Don’t know.
Firemen aren’t just for fires, as has been said. They are for all kinds of emergencies. And they are more strategically located than ambulances, so they usually show up much faster than ambulances.
Fire trucks have the best response time because they are stationed around the city, while ambulances usually are not. I know of only one “ambulance station” in the three city area where I live, and at least a dozen fire stations. I often see an ambulance at the fire stations, but they seem to have 6 fire trucks and one ambulance, so it makes sense to send the fire truck to assess the situation first.
Plus they’re just more prepared to do a variety of things. Medical patients aren’t always sitting on the porch waiting for the ambulance. An ambulance crew isn’t prepared to crash in the door of a heart attack victim, extricate someone from an elevator shaft, or carry Gary T down the stairs.
I heard, long ago, that it’s because many (most?) fire departments are no longer comprised of volunteers. They’re paid and they’re on call 24/7. To help justify a service that isn’t used most of the time (if they only responded to fires), the fire depts gained more roles, making it more cost effective.
Do they have to wash the truck after every call? It seems like firefighters are always washing their trucks.
Fire department usually gets to an accident or emergency first. The ambulance is usually the one that does the transport. If either the fire department or ambulance service run into trouble responding to an emergency, the other can continue and do all the duties required. It would really suck if your appendix burst and the ambulance trying to reach you got all the way to your house and loaded you on the gurney before the engine broke down, and it would take another crew 10-15 minutes to reach you.