I hoped he would talk about needing volunteers so he could actually do CPR while moving or loading a patient. Or that like every NFPA and OSHA safety standard says, more than two firefightrs are needed on a fire for the safety of citizens and firefighters. He only talked about himself.
Then I noticed that the firefighter Mike Pettway was a Chief in the LMRFD before we went broke. He was part of the problem, so taking advice on the LMRFD spending from him may not be wise.
He said we should consolidate because "he can't handleworking at lmrfd if it continues the way its going".
That he needed more pay, I agree. He said he needed better benefits, I agree. I also see he started as a volunteer firefighter, now doesn't want others to have the same chance to serve their community.
He feels fustrated not being able to respond to fires, people in Dolan feel fustrated not having anyone to respond to EMS calls.
Calling 911 to be told a firefighter will be there in half hour or so from Meadview. Then canceling the fire department, and driving your husband to Kingman with chest pain, hoping you make it.
He said he wanted to save peoples homes, I'm sure he would love to save people's homes. Truth is, with today's building material, ignition to a fully involved structure fire is 10-12 minutes. It doesn't matter if we had 100 firefighters at the fire station, it doesn't change, you will not save a structure fire in a rural area. If so, show me one.
He said he can't respond without a tone out. It's not that people don't call when their home is on fire. On some calls dispatch can take over 2 minutes (2:20) to tone you out, it can take E411 over 5 minutes to get in route (5:25). So with almost 8 minutes to get out the doors of the fire station, a home is fully involved in 10-12 minutes, that combined with long responses is why they can't save homes. It's not their fault.
I DIDN'T HEAR HIM SAY ANYTHING ABOUT EMS, or SAVING PEOPLE
I didn't hear him say anything about EMS calls or saving people, only about fire calls. That's one problem, firefighters are required to be an EMT or paramedic.
He didn't say how without 3-4 people he can't effectively do CPR when moving, loading or transporting a patient while CPR is in progress, and a volunteer could make the difference. Each time CPR is stopped the chance of survival drops.
It's great to have firefighters, but we only had 37 fires in the last 34 months, but we had 1344 EMS calls. We need volunteer EMT's and paramedics who are not required to be firefighters.
At the meeting when I ask the chief where an AED, an Automatic External Defibrillator was in the area, he didn't know. Worse yet, no one in the 50-60 people there knew for sure where an AED was.
An AED or Automatic External Defibrillator is used to correct life threatening heart rythems. If used within minutes of a witnessed sudden cardiac arrest, the chance of survival is very good.
When the firefighters left on a call during that meeting, if someone would have had a sudden cardiac arrest right there, if we couldn't find the AED and apply it within 6 minutes, their chance of survival drops to near zero.
Our EMS system is broken. No other fire district in Arizona has firefighters who close the only fire station in town, and take the ambulance 50 miles outside the fire district.
As with fire calls the National Fire Protection Association recommends having four people on EMS calls.
If the patient needs CPR you need three people to transport them with any chance of survival. One to do CPR, two to load the patient with little to no interruption in CPR.
In route to the hospital you need one EMT to drive, one EMT needs to operate the heart monitor and push medications, and one needs to do CPR switching with the other EMT as you can't do CPR for 40 minutes..
GUIDELINES FOR EMS
NFPA 450, Guide for Emergency Medical Services and Systems, 2009 edition, Chapter 5, Section 5.5.2.3.4: “Most experts agree that four responders [at least two trained in advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) and two trained in basic life support (BLS)] are the minimum required to provide ACLS to cardiac arrest victims.”
WHAT CAN WE DO
We need to teach everyone CPR, especially all employees in local stores. We need AED's at the community center, Vinny's, both service clubs, and both restaurants. You have 6 minutes to locate, hookup the pads, operate the defibrillator. King County Washington has a 62% sudden cardiac arrest save rate, most of the nation is 8-10%.
The worst review Dolan Springs could get is, "my husband died in Dolan Springs, 2 blocks from the fire station". The Dolan Springs business area is small. There's no reason we can't give visitors a chance of survival.
WHY NOT TO CONSOLIDATE
Chief Moore and Mr Flynn have done a great job of getting the LMRFD back on track. Hopefully we learned our lesson, and citizens will attend more fire board meetings, and watch over things better.
The main reason not to consolidate is we give up too much control of the fire district and our EMS to people outside the area. Giving up control to people (except one fire board member) who cover such a large area, and a chief who is very busy, we lose control of many decisions.
At the August 15th 2013 Fire Board meeting Chief Moore asked the board to donate 6 AED's to Kingman High Schools. They had a trade in value of $200 each, my guess at the original cost is between $2000 and $5000 each.
We need a local fire board who knows the area, and that AED's would have been better used at several business in Dolan Springs. The cost for new batteries and pads for most AED's is $75 to $300 each, much better than the original $2000+ cost each, or the $1200 to $1800 each for new units.
We could have placed older but usable units in businesses for between $450 and $1800 less, or about the cost on one new AED.
When the NFPA 1710 One-In-One-Out rule came out it was called
"The most important advance in firefighter safety in decades" they also said it's
"a regulation that goes a long way in making one of the most dangerous professions safer" Why would any fire district ignore all the firefighter lives it took to learn that lesson?
If anything is not correct, please let me know. Some people have said there's bad information going around.
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