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What’s an emergency?

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I know that my 7.5 years pales in comparison to many of those that are on the Job currently, but I feel like I have seen my share of “emergencies” in this time. What constitutes an emergency though?

Merriam-Webster defines an emergency as “an unforeseen combination of circumstances or the resulting state that calls for immediate action”.

We’ve all been there – 2am, at the nursing home for “unusual labs” but the patient states they don’t really want to be transported – but their Doc says they have to. Yea, it gets frustrating, especially when they’ve had the labs for the past 18 hours and are just now calling us, but I’m not physician. Hell, I haven’t even finished college. I can read, and can see what the lab report says, but that doesn’t mean I would truly understand what it means. The other portion of this side of the spectrum are the patients who have a  broken nail (I have been dispatched to a call for a broken finger nail). We get these calls from years of telling patients “We’re here for you, calls us if you need us” or similar statements. We are here for the public, but phrases like these lead to over worked 911 systems. I’ve been told by a close friend that a large metropolitan area (not in VA) that utilizes a priority/triage based system of receiving and dispatching emergency calls. This method of dispatching helps to ensure that the most critical patients receive the most appropriate care as fast a possible, while more stable patients receive it as units are available. Now, I’m not familiar with this set up personally, so if someone has personal knowledge of it, please let me know.

What really brings this question to mind tonight isn’t the overworked EMS system, but the fact that I received a phone call the other evening from a family friend about an odor of gas in her house. She was calling me because her husband was out of town and she knows I’m a firefighter. Well, I was at work so there wasn’t much I could do for her personally. My response was simple – get out and call 911. Sure, it may just be a pilot light out, or something arbitrary like that, but why risk it? She wasn’t too keen on calling 911. As a firefighter with access to gas monitors and PPE, the odor of gas isn’t as great a concern to me. But for an average person it should be considered an emergency. Same as a CO detector going off should be an emergency (unless its a low battery alert which is a different noise from an alarm).

I have met more people on fire service calls apologizing for calling 911 and having us come out than any other call type. I look at it from the stand point that if you call because your CO detector is going off, or you have an odor of smoke or gas then calling us is a preventative measure. Similar to going and getting a yearly physical. Why put yourself at risk? We are here to serve the citizens, tax-paying or otherwise.

The public calls on us - Firefighters, EMTs, Medics – to come and assist them with something that they perceive to be an emergency, whether we see it as such or not is a different matter.

What is an emergency? Who decides?

Posted by on January 27, 2012 • Filed under: Command & Leadership, Fire Dispatch, Fire Prevention & Education, Funding & Staffing, Training, Training & Development, Uncategorized

Let’s get started….

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New firefighters and EMTs start on the job with a career or volunteer department almost daily. Some of these people breeze into the job and right back out. Others stick around and love the job for what it is – helping others in their time of need.

I started on the job seven and a half years ago as a volunteer at my local fire/rescue department. I was 16 at the time and was not planning on anything more than some volunteer service to look good on a college application. Not being familiar with the traditions or the Brotherhood of the fire service, I wasn’t prepared for the years to come. There comes a time in every person’s life where they find their niche. The one thing that makes them happy, where they feel at ease and they enjoy going to “work”. Firefighting is my niche. It doesn’t pay my bills, but it helps others.

I am beginning my second year as an operational officer at my department. I’ve been Deputy Chief (3rd in command) for just over 9 months now, after previously holding the rank of Lieutenant. As these “promotions” have been thrust upon me, I’ve had to do a lot of adjusting and learning. There are things as a firefighter that you just never think of until you’re place in a position of leadership. These past months have been challenging, and I feel as though the next year will be even more so as I embark on both recruiting new members and retaining the ones we have already brought on, as well as trying to change the training and readiness mindset of my department.

In my short (and long) 7.5 years on the job I have had both the pleasure and displeasure of incidents that will be branded into my mind forever. As the new year turned over, I decided that it was time for me to begin a form of a record of some of incidents, how they affect me, my crews and my family. For those out there contemplating getting into the fire service, I want to share these experiences as straight forward as possible to help them know what they are getting into. I also want to share what I’ve learned as a young officer, so that hopefully others that are in similar positions as myself can learn from my mistakes. Above all else though, all of my opinions belong to me and me alone.

Posted by on January 13, 2012 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, EMS Health & Safety, Fire Dispatch, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fires, Funding & Staffing, Training, Training & Development, Wildland