EMS responding to fire standbys

[bcems107]

I often wondered why pulling an ambulance out of service to do a stand by for an alarm or for an odor investigation was important. Well, it all came very clear why it is important to have one on scene with fire. We were call to the "BS" odor investigation. A homeless guy while walking by a buidling in our down town district, stumbled up to a fire station and said there was a odd odor down the street. SO the guys roll out and told the EMS to remain at the station they were going to check a smell reported by a "BUM". As the engine pulled up in front of the building, the Captain and rookie FF jumped off the truck, go and attempt to breech the door, upon breeching the door a huge cloud of Anhydrous Ammonia came out over taking the crew. Chemical burns to Face and Upper airway. The rookie was on a VENT for 3 weeks the captain for 1.5 weeks. The sad thing was why the were responding to that, the ambulance out of their station was sent to Hospital for an EMERGENCY TRANSFER, and they had to wait 15 minutes for another Unit to come across town.

I know we all have rare occassions where things go wrong. As much as we complain about having to get up and go with the fire or respond to what we call in EMS a BS call. Just remember, its never a BS call, you are there backing your fellow brothers and sisters. I would much rather set and not be needed than to be 10 minutes behind the ball because "WE" didn't want to run the BS odor investigation.

So its 15 to 20 minutes out of our shift. We are paid to be there some for 12 hours and others for 24. Its part of the job we CHOSE to do. Protection and serving our communities.

Some times we forget the real reason why we are here doing what we do. WE all have realized that it takes a SPECIAL person to do what we do. NOT everyone is cut out for this service. As for those that are, we need to remember there is NO I in team. We are in this together. We all want to go home at 7 to our families, not having our families come to us in the ER or morgue.

Just remember we all have been there, we all have been pissed because we got woken up at 2 in the morning for that BS call. But hey we are on the clock that is our job. No one MADE YOU go into this career. As for the 2 guys that where hurt in the above scenerio, they were family, and it really hit home.

[p3medic]

You can beat the "what if" horse to death, I think its a waste of resources to send EMS to all fire dept calls.....Should we go to all PD calls? After all, the domestic violence call is the most dangerous.....perhaps we should stand by for those? How about doing stand bys at construction sites, labs, food processing plants etc? It is unfortunate that the fire fighters in this incident didn't have EMS standing by, but neither do people doing other dangerous jobs. Just my opinion of course.

[JPINFV]

Since when did fire fighters become my brothers and sisters? Fire fighting=putting water of hot stuff. Firefighting!=medical care. Just as EMS=medical care. EMS!=fire fighting.

Why not send an ambulance to every police call, just in case? After all, if you are joining EMS and the fire service at the hip because of "public service" then shouldn't law enforcement get to join in too? [hyperboil] Here's an idea, fire, EMS, and LE should be dispatched to ALL 911 calls, regardless of complaint, just IN CASE something happens. After all, we're all "brothers and sisters." [/hyperboil]

[rant] [Family guy reference] You know what really grinds my gears? [/family guy reference] This whole "brothers and sisters" bull crud. "Oh, golly gee wiz, you shouldn't report your coworker to management. After all, why would you sell out your brothers and sisters like that? You know what, I've got 1 sister [she's married, sorry guys], and you're not her. I don't owe my so caled "brothers and sisters" anything just because they decided to go into the same field. Just because you want to roll the dice and get injured doing something stupid doesn't mean that you should feel that you have the right to haul my butt out for that 1/1000 chance that something happens.

I'm sure that the fire department wouldn't be happy if they were dispatched to all EMS calls just in case fatty McFatpants is the patient and my partner and I lack the strength and/or willingness to destroy our back lifting the patient. Afterall, you never know when Mr/s McFatpants is going to be the patient, so they should get dispatched to ALL EMS calls. I'm sure that they'd be willing to back up their "brothers and sisters" after all.

Furthermore, since the term "brothers and sisters" was brought up, again, I will say that I owe you NOTHING. If you do something STUPID [stupid and ignorant are two COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS. Ignorance can be fixed, stupidity can't] and dangerous [to your, mine, the patient's, or the public's health], you're status as a "brother or sister" does not and should never constitute any sort of immunity if management was not there.

Now, to be clear, if there's a legit chance of someone being injured, by all means request support. A "legit" chance does not include a bum reporting an oder nor does every fire, including structure fires depending on the circumstances, require an EMS response. God, for the amount of fire fighters who hate EMS, they sure seem to want us there to hold their hands for them.

[/rant]

[captainstandup]

OK, father I have sinned, I despise going to them too, but hey it really really beats these godforsaken nursing home calls, unless of course the nursing home is on fire.

I don't dislike the patients in the nursing homes, just the hopelessness of their situation and the neverending moneygrubbing silliness and fraud that exists within them. Perhaps it a bit of a "mortality check" that hits a little too close to home too, now that my parents are over 70.

[Dustdevil]

JP covered the "brotherhood" issue pretty thoroughly, so moving on...

WE all have realized that it takes a SPECIAL person to do what we do. NOT everyone is cut out for this service. As for those that are, we need to remember there is NO I in team.

I have met very few "special" people in EMS over the years. Well, actually, a lot of them were "special," but not in a positive way. More like special ed. But it doesn't take anything special at all to work EMS in this country. It doesn't take intelligence or education. It certainly doesn't take maturity or class. It takes a driver licence and a patch (which may or may not be backed up by an actual certification), and the willingness to work for peanuts while being surrounded by annoying idiots all day long. Of course, it is our co-workers I am referring to, before anybody gets bent out of shape about me bad-mouthing our patients.

Why not send an ambulance to every police call, just in case? After all, if you are joining EMS and the fire service at the hip because of "public service" then shouldn't law enforcement get to join in too?

Excellent analogy! It makes a lot more sense to send EMS to stand by at routine traffic stops than at automatic fire/gas alarms! And if I am going to foster a "brotherhood" with somebody, it makes a lot more sense for that to be the PD than the FD. The cances of me spontaneously combusting on a scene are pretty remote. But the chances of me being assaulted or threatened on a scene are about fifty-fifty. If I "need" the FD, it's usually the patient that needed them, not me personally. But if I need the cops, I need them seriously, I need them now, and I need them on my side without question.

Firefighting is a team sport. Medicine is not. Medicine is mano a mano. One patient with one practitioner. Everybody else involved is only support. They play equally important roles, but they are not the same roles. And any firemonkeys involved in this process -- while sincerely appreciated -- are not on my team. They are there to do a completely different job. We're "in the same boat" only in the sense that inmates in a prison are all in the same boat. That's not brotherhood. That's just geography.

[AnthonyM83]

Eh, around here FD does ask for standby, but it's mainly for possible patients, though some battalion chiefs do request the ambulance to stay while FF's do their work. I don't mind, it's not that often. I've probably done it five times in the last year.

PD also asks us for standbies for SWAT activities. I don't mind, only done it once in the last year.

It's called mutual aid. We ask for PD assistance sometimes, too. It's not a brotherhood or sisterhood thing, it's just providing favors to the people we work with and keeping relations smooth.

In a way, we are all in the same boat...we all interact/deal with random members of the public and sometimes deal with similar headaches, schedules, liability issues, etc...so we're happy to help and take help to/from each other. Not really a big deal...

[bcems107]

WOW,

Didn't realize there was such a pissing match between Fire service and EMS service on here.

I guess coming from a Fire based system, we are all brothers and sisters. And for the IDIOT that says the statement about not rat'n our your fellow worker. I mean serious show your maturity here. WE are here to serve and protect. Apparently you are in it for YOUR GLORY and YOUR GLORY alone. YOU are a sad sad individual.

[JPINFV]

Apparently you are in it for YOUR GLORY and YOUR GLORY alone. YOU are a sad sad individual.

No. I'm here for the PATIENT. If my partner's behavior negatively impacts patient care in a way outside of ignorance [ignorant is not knowing any better and, thus, fixable], then why should I not insure that corrective measure are taken? I'd rather be a rat and go to management than sit on my hands and be negligent.

[racing-emt03]

EMPLOYMENT NOTICE:

Seeking 10 million EMT-P's and 10 million EMT-B's

WANTED :

Alot more ambulances!!!!

We now send EMS to all police and fire activities, including traffic stops, therefore we are now very short staffed in the united states EMS field. Due to the low number of EMS professionals applicants must meet the following requirements:

Pulse

Some type of respiratory and brain function

Send your applications to :

Wasting Resources

c/o Stretching to thin

119 Need a Purpose Rd

Los Angeles, CA

Moral of this, sending ems to every fire and PD call is impossible

[AnthonyM83]

Thing is that full-blow structure fires and SWAT standbyes happen rarely. Traffic stops and domestic violence calls happen several times a day. While it WOULD actually make logical sense, logistics can't support it. But when it ends up that I only do 1 SWAT standby and 5 fire standbies (most under 45 minutes) in one year, that seems doable and a good courtesy if your system can handle it.