Does the LMRFD Look for Full Time Firefighters, or is the Good Ol' Boy system alive and well in the LMRFD.

The majority of LMRFD firefighters only work part for the LMRFD while living and working full time for other fire districts in the area. 

So why doesn't the LMRFD advertise for full time firefighter EMT's or paramedics? Every time I ask why the LMRFD doesn't hire full time firefighters, I'm told no firefighters want to work here. 

But wait all the chiefs buddies work here? Rather than look for full time employees Chief DeMaio hires his buddies from neighboring fire districts. Paramedics make almost $700 per shift plus benefits and retirement costs. They work 2 days at their fire district, 2 days at LMRFD and still get 2 days off...

So rather than look for full time firefighters who want to live in the fire district, it appears the Good Ol' Boy system is alive and well in the LMRFD.

Young firefighter EMT's want to use their skills, not sit around. In states like Washington where fire departments are under civil service a young firefighter wanting to work for Spokane Fire Department will take the civil service test. Then wait to see where they are on the hiring list that will be used for the next two years, if there are any openings.

Even young firefighter's who placed high on the list that want to work now had better look somewhere else to work until a job at Spokane Fire Department opens up sometime in the next two years. 

I know in 2015 LMRFD paramedics were making $13.98 an hour, or $669.69 per 48 hour shift, or $2678 a month plus benefits of approximately $800 a month. Thats working 10-11 days a month with 19-20 days off a month.

We live in a place where people bring their ATV's, 4X4's and other toys to play. We have good weather all year, compared to being ass deep in snow up north.

You can't tell me if the LMRFD would advertise at firefighting schools nation wide, that young firefighters wouldn't come here to work 10 days a month for $3500 (with benefits) a month, and play with their toys the other 20 days.


The LMRFD needs to advertise at fire schools nation wide, like other fire districts.  

Common Sense? What Does Common Sense Tell You About this Picture?

They say a picture is worth 1000 words. I hope this image of all the fire districts in Mohave County and the LMRFD CON does this for you..

The brown line outlines Mohave County. The blue square in the red line is the Dolan portion of the LMRFD. The two little blue spots just above are the Meadview portion of the LMRFD.

The red line is approximately the 2200 square miles in the LMRFD CON.  

As you can see the LMRFD is much larger than most of the other fire districts in the county. The CON or ambulance coverage area area covered by our 2-3 firefighters is larger than all the other fire districts in the county combined.

We need to ask why the taxpayers in the small medically under served communities of Dolan Springs and Meadview support an ambulance that covers an area larger than ALL OTHER FIRE DISTRICTS in Mohave County?

We need to reduce the area of the LMRFD to the area of the fire district. We're told the ambulance needs the money from calls. 

The majority of calls are from the populated areas in Dolan and Meadview. How much does the ambulance make, or lose on calls outside the fire district? Does anyone know? 

The taxpayers in those two little blue dots on the map can not be expected to support EMS for such a huge area.

  

Fire an Example of WHY We Need to Separate the LMRFD Fire Service from Ambulance

I hope other people have a problem with it taking an hour to an ambulance to a call, especially when it's an injured firefighter.

When one of our firefighters suffers heat exhaustion working a fire in 100 degree temperatures and rather than have the volunteer resources to use our NEW $163,000 ambulance, they call for AMR ambulance from Kingman. CORRECTION The Ambulance was $163,000

At yesterdays fire on Ivy one of our firefighter who risk their lives to protect us suffered heat exhaustion fighting the fire. There seemed to be some confusion on the call about if an ambulance was needed. 

Around 4 PM LMRFD advised they had a firefighter with heat exhaustion a requested AMR respond from Kingman. 

At 4:17 PM LMRFD asked dispatch if AMR was responding, they weren't. Dispatch asked if this was for a transport, and LMRFD told them yes, this was a firefighter with heat exhaustion that needed transport. 

At 4:41 LMRFD again checked on AMR telling dispatch that they needed a Delta Response, red lights and siren...

At 4:54 PM AMR finally arrived and the firefighter wasn't finally transported at 5:04 PM.

Something is wrong when we have a $163,000 ambulance is sitting a mile away while a firefighter suffering heat exhaustion. Waiting an hour for an ambulance on any EMS call is just wrong. When one of our firefighters is injured they need to become the priority.

The LMRFD put a volunteer firefighter through the recent EMR Emergency Medical Responder course and should be nationally certified by now. 

The LMRFD should be asking the Arizona EMS Bureau why the Arizona Revised Statutes say an EMR can work on an ambulance and assist EMT's and paramedics and drive the ambulance. 

AGAIN a two man crew, one EMT and one paramedic can not run a cardiac arrest call and transport. It takes a minimum of 3 preferably 4 people to run a cardiac arrest and do EFFECTIVE CPR on scene or in the ambulance during transport.  

There is a Difference Where You Train and I Found When You Train... How I've Found EMS Has Changed

I recently completed my 80 hour EMR Emergency Medical Responder training and passed my National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians test to become a Nationally Registered Emergency Medical Responder. 

The training today was certainly different than my training back in 1984. They have had great advances in EMS training, medications and equipment.  I noticed things had changed in EMS but there were also drastic changes in the way emergency departments are ran.

I did much of my EMS training at the emergency room at County Hospital in Los Angels. Ya it was way back in 1984 the Olympics were in town as well as millions of extra people from all over the world and it was a crazy time in EMS. Emergency Medicine was in it's beginning and they were starting to train paramedics across the U.S.

NOTE for General Hospital Watchers
Across the street from the County Hospital in Los Angels was the womans hospital. So the main County Hospital building was know as General Hospital. The big gates you see at the beginning of soap opera General Hospital are the entrance to LA County Hospital Emergency Department...

If you have ever had an interest in emergency medicine and how we got from emergency rooms to emergency departments, from family physicians to emergency medicine physicians, and first aiders to paramedics, County Hospital and what was called C-booth was where emergency medicine was born...... 

It's sad but today emergency medicine is about privacy,

liability, and paper work, and not medicine.... 

Code Black shows you the change from saving lives at the Old County Hospital, to doing paper work at the New County Hospital

One review said: The documentary Code Black is about County Hospital in Los Angeles and the emergency doctors who work there, and the young physicians, physician assistants, and paramedics who train there. It is literally a gut-wrenching portrait of a small square footage of space where we’re told more people have died and been saved than anywhere else in the United States. It’s a 50 by 25 foot section of the County ER called “c-booth.”

As crazy as things got on the popular ER drama, that show doesn’t hold a candle to the insanity that happened at “C-booth,” where the worst trauma cases were taken. The horde of doctors and PA’s and EMT’s that surround a dying man looks like what would happen if you dropped the guy in the middle of a crowded Tokyo train.

If you have Netflix check out Code Black the Documentary 

Be Safe Be Prepared Learn CPR and First Aid

WE have been told over and over that "the LMRFD Certificate of Necessity Can NOT be Changed So WHO CHANGED IT?

WE have been told over and over that "the LMRFD Certificate of Necessity Can NOT be Changed... Period.....

REALLY!!!  Then WHO CHANGED IT?

At one time the LMRFD had the resources to cover the 2200 square mile CON or Certificate of Necessity form the state. WHY Can't we change the area covered by the LMRFD Ambulance since our resources have changed from seven ambulances to one. 

At one time the LMRFD web page said the fire district had seven ALS (Advanced Life Support) ambulances and four rescue vehicles with extradition equipment... 

At the LMRFD board meetings we have been told over and over that the LMRFD CON Certificate of Necessity can NOT be changed. Period... NOT TRUE

The image below is a map of the LMRFD CON Certificate of Necessity issued by the Arizona EMS Bureau. 

As you can see the CON covers a huge area that extends into Coconino County. The LMRFD Does NOT RESPOND to calls in the eastern part of the CON or in Coconino County. 

In fact, if you look at a map, you can't get there from here.... 

To get from the LMRFD fire station in Dolan Springs to the eastern part of the CON is on Route 66. From Dolan Springs to Frazier Wells is 116 miles and takes a little over 2 hours to get there... If responding from Meadview it's 133 miles and 2 1/2 hours to get there.

We need to ask why if the CON can NOT BE CHANGED, who made this change, is it legal to reduce the CON area without advising the MS Board. 

If they reduced the CON in this case, why can't we reduce the CON to cover the 144 square mile fire district. If people in White Hills want fire and ambulance service join the fire district and pay their fair share or start their own fire district and ambulance.

Currently the taxpayers in the 144 sm LMRFD are the only one's supporting the basic fire and EMS services. Yes people in White Hills pay when they call the ambulance. 

I question how much the LMRFD has recovered responding to fires outside the district like the fire at Rosie's Den and others. 

How much do we get is kind of a moot point if our only firefighters are up in White Hills when your home burns down or your husband dies of a heart attack.

Why don't the taxpayers in the LMRFD get it? Why is the LMRFD Ambulance the ONLY fire ambulance that covers 2000 square miles OUTSIDE their fire district. 

If we had seven ALS (Advanced Life Support) ambulances and four rescue vehicles with extradition equipment and volunteers around the fire district, we could cover 2200 sm's... 
BUT we don't, we have one ambulance...

We have a broken EMS service in the LMRFD and it needs fixed....