Where To Go From Here

Where to go from here.... The lake Mohave Ranchos Fire District functioned pretty well for some 35 years. When the economy crashed many agencies had problems. It was a combination of factors that caused the problems.

There is some money in the budget, unused money for grants, two unfilled positions and $165,000 for another firefighter shift in Meadview that's planned.

There's the federal money for the land we cover, and half of Meadview isn't in the fire district, that need to be addressed.

You can't wear two hats, we need to separate fire service from EMS. The vast majority of calls to the LMRFD, 70% are medical calls.

We need volunteer EMT paramedics on the ambulance, and our paid firefighters EMTs or EMT Advanced  as support.

Forcing a firefighter to become a paramedic, is like forcing a construction worker to become nurses aid. Even if you manage to get it accomplished, it won't work well, or be very pretty.

Please Read the Article but also the comments, see what paramedics think about being cross trained.
Thoughts on Forced Fire EMS Cross Training

Okay it's hard to find firefighters here, but we don't need firefighters, we need EMT's. By requiring the EMT's on the ambulance to be firefighters, we pretty much limit our volunteer pool to men.

Lets face it, not many women want to be firefighters. The vast majority of firefighters are men, with less than 4% in the United States being women.

Medicine on the other hand is made up primarily of women, nurses, physicians, OR techs. According to the Journal of Emergency Medical Services women make up about 50% of today's EMS services.

So by requiring the ambulance EMT's to be firefighters we severely limit our volunteer pool. We may have a wealth of experienced women with a medical backgrounds out there who have no interest in being a firefighter. We'll never know unless we ask.

I would change the volunteer EMT policy allowing volunteers from the 2200 square mile ambulance CON, rather than the 144 sm fire district. This would not only give us more volunteers to draw from, but cover the ambulance area better with volunteers spread out.

I would work toward Arizona's new Paramedicine Program where paramedics can do more primary care. By treating chronic conditions at home, checking on surgery patients and changing bandages before the infections and ambulance ride.

It's new, and legislation needs changed so paramedics can bill Medicare and insurance.

I know it's about money, but if we don't put lives first, it will cost us more in human lives, and lawsuits if we continue to have one firefighter show up at fires and serious vehicle accidents.

Please read Why this is so important to me

Unless we train and hire locals who know Dolan Springs and Meadview, we will always be looking for people, because they will come get experience and go on to more calls and more money.

I just believe the people deserve better care.

Jay