Common sense from the Fire Department- who knew??

[CBEMT]

Baltimore to Make Lights, Siren Optional

Jessica Anderson

The Baltimore Sun

This August, Baltimore City residents might notice fewer sirens from firetrucks speeding to emergencies.

Baltimore Fire Chief James S. Clack said the city Fire Department will launch a multitiered response system to save the city money spent sending unnecessary equipment on nonemergency calls and to increase the safety of emergency responders and other drivers on the road.

"We just want to make sure we are matching our response with our risk," Clack said.

Under the new policy, calls to the department will be deemed "hot," "warm" or "cold."

In "hot" responses, emergency responders will react with sirens and lights to move quickly through traffic. On "warm" calls, the first units due to the scene will respond as if the call were an emergency, and additional units will follow without using their lights and sirens. On "cold" calls, responders will move with traffic.

The plans come after a fatal accident in December when city Truck 27 sped through a red light and crashed into an SUV at Park Heights Avenue and Clarks Lane in Northwest Baltimore.

The SUV driver, Iryna Petrov; her husband, Mikhail; and a friend, Igor Saub, were killed. The firefighters, who suffered minor injuries, were responding to a call, which turned out to be a pot burning on a stove.

City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake, who introduced a resolution calling on the department to study a tiered emergency response system, said the new procedure could reduce the number of times responders must put themselves and other drivers in danger.

She said the accident in December was a big factor in her decision to take up the issue.

The city's action also comes amid increasing fatalities for firefighters responding to and returning from emergencies. The National Fire Protection Association found that in 2003 and 2004, more firefighters were killed traveling to and from emergencies than in any other part of their jobs.

Anne Arundel and Howard counties have already adopted policies to separate emergency and nonemergency calls.

Dan Merson, department chief of field operations for Howard County, said a tiered plan has worked "quite well" in Howard County, "limiting the risk to the public and us."

In Howard County, firefighters use their lights and sirens on all calls when emergency medical services are required but not in all other cases.

Merson said that nonemergency calls include fire alarms and sprinkler systems going off when there is no smoke or evidence of fire. Other common calls include downed wires or people locked out of their cars. There are 15 types of nonemergency call in Howard County, he said.

Anne Arundel County has a similar system.

"If there is a Dumpster on fire, we don't send crews with lights and sirens," said Matthew Tobia, battalion chief in the Anne Arundel County Fire Department. He said that a tiered system enables crews to balance the risk to themselves and the public with the need to get to emergencies quickly.

He said that every 911 operator asks questions to determine the severity of the situation. If there is no life or property hazard, it is treated as a nonemergency, he said.

The tiered system will also help reduce costs, with fewer vehicles responding to calls, said Clack, who worked with a similar system in Minneapolis before coming to Baltimore this year.

"It's going to save on the amount of equipment that we have running red lights and sirens," he said. "Each time we are running down the street, we are putting the public at risk to save other people, and that's why we do that, otherwise we would just be going with traffic."

Rawlings-Blake said that the city will help educate the public about the new system in the coming months.

"We'll make sure we do our part," she said. "We don't want people to think at all, if there is an actual fire, that the Fire Department will not come. It's a matter of how they respond."

jessica.anderson@baltsun.com

[JPINFV]

I call shenanigans. Just because the leadership says they're gonna do it doesn't mean that the rank and file will follow. As a perfect example of stupidity that I've seen, do we really need the fly car/fire engine going to the hospital with lights and sirens when the ambulance is transporting a patient? Similarly, I've heard first hand accounts of the personnel on the engine essentially (peer pressure) forcing the ambulance to upgrade a transport to code 3 (apparently the fire medic's response was along the lines of "what ever, if they want to go ahead and do it").

[FormerEMSLT297]

This is the STUPIDist idea in the WORLD. I agree with certain calls to the hospital you do not need L/S, but until you get there ,, you have no idea what is wrong. How many times have you/I gone to a Uncon. person only to find a homeless man asleep on the sidewalk, or an "unknown trouble" is actually a serious call, shooting/stabbing. Cardiac, etc.

The county where I work AA county does thie hot, cold, warm, and it just does not work,, the first due engine to a gas leak is hot, the second is warm, the first truck is cold,,,, WTF,, you end up not knowing the players without a score card, and you rtake more time trying to figure out if you are supposed to be responding hot warm or cold, than worrying about the call ..... BAD, BAD, BAD, Idea.......

[FormerEMSLT297]

"we dont need to go L/S to a dumpster fire" What if it is up against the house, and becasue you do not go L/S it extends to the house, and now you have a raging house fire....

This system is crap. Garbage in garbage out,,,

[EMS49393]

I think it's a fantastic idea, if it's used properly. A study was done several years ago that found the average response time when a vehicle used lights and sirens was often less than 30 seconds longer than the same type of vehicle responding cold. I just don't buy into the idea that "our response time could mean the difference between life or property if we don't turn all our toys on." That theory has been debunked. I will look for the study while I'm convalescing today.

The idea is to preserve life. It would be fantastic to be able to preserve both life and property, all the time, however in a lot of instances, it's just not feasible. Don't get me wrong, a house suffering damage from a dumpster fire next to the building sucks, but putting hundreds of people at risk racing like gangbusters to the fire is just plain ridiculous. In that instance, life before property.

We already put the greater public at risk every time we turn on our lights and sirens. The drivers often don't know which way to go when we run up behind them. They can and have caused accidents with their indecision. Likewise, emergency vehicles have caused accidents while responding. It saving a dumpster or some siding on a house really worth killing three people?

From what I've read in both news reports and on another forum for firefighters, I like this Chief Clack. I'm hoping he'll pull the Baltimore City Fire Department out of the pit of hell it has been in for so many years.

[WestSideBorderPatrol]

"we dont need to go L/S to a dumpster fire" What if it is up against the house, and becasue you do not go L/S it extends to the house, and now you have a raging house fire....

This system is crap. Garbage in garbage out,,,

This is where the Dispatchers are really going to have to step up and ask the right questions to ensure that the dumpster really isn't up against a house or posing a risk to anything else. It'll be interesting to see how this all works out.

[Richard B the EMT]

If the fire spreads from the dumpster to the house while the dispatcher is trying to determine which of the 3 type responses should be utilized, it is potentially a lousy system.

Then, again, no matter how good a system is, there will always be room for some improvement later on.