Mo. Fire Department Sees Increase in Medical Calls
Sept. 19--Medical calls have increasingly made up a larger portion of the St. Joseph Fire Department's total call volume.
St. Joseph Fire Chief Mike Dalsing said several factors have contributed to a drop in fire-related calls, which has led to medical calls making up about 65 percent of the department's total calls.
"There's more people that get sick than there are fires but the fire calls, with the event of new codes and sprinkler systems, they've decreased dramatically over the past couple years," Dalsing said.
Last year, the St. Joseph Fire Department responded to 9,425 calls, the majority of which were medical calls.
Dalsing said the Fire Department has been going to first-responder calls for about 20 years. During that time, the number of firefighters who are EMT certified has increased significant -- going from about 24 percent of the city's firefighters to almost 100 percent today.
Firefighters complete the EMT training and certification in addition to other required training.
The demolition of older buildings Downtown also has contributed to a decrease in fire-related calls, Dalsing said.
"We lost a lot of our heritage, but we also lost a good portion of the buildings that were heavy fire loads and were more dangerous buildings," Dalsing said.
Dalsing said fire and ambulance services in St. Joseph work well together. Whomever arrives on scene first lets the other agency know if further help is needed.
The St. Joseph Fire Department often will send firefighters in a pickup instead of a fire truck when they respond to medical calls.
"We have two ladder trucks, they're about a million dollars each to buy new so to prolong the life of those, we go ahead and use a pickup that has a camper shell and they carry their medical equipment in it and respond with that," Dalsing said.
He said responding in a smaller truck is a trend in fire departments across the country. Tim Heimer, fire chief for the Grand Island, Nebraska Fire Department, recently surveyed departments of a similar size to his, including St. Joseph. His data shows multiple fire departments in the Midwest respond to a larger percentage of medical calls than fire-related calls.
"That's pretty typical throughout the U.S. depending on the department anywhere from 50 to 80 percent," Heimer said.
He attributes some of that increase to baby boomers aging, which he said has lead to more medical calls.
For Grand Island, Heimer said firefighters have seen an equal increase in both fire and medical calls. Structure fire, he said, have leveled off in number. The city hasn't see a significant increase or decrease for several years, he said.
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