Announced at the last city council meeting was that the city will have a report from CityGate by June, which will be ready for the public by August on fire staffing issues.
The Vanguard has been told that the four-person fire engine crew is very much on the table. Previous research has shown Davis is one of the few cities that has kept the four-person team.
But times are changing, and the fire fighters union no longer controls council like they did in 2009 when the first CityGate report came out.
Their original recommendation was that moving from four- to three-firefighter crews would be a significant reduction in service.
They wrote, “Fielding three, 3-firefighter crews would be a noticeable reduction in service.”
They suggest it would mean the first unit would have to wait for the second unit to arrive before entering a structure fire, per OSHA regulations.
They suggested that, provided both the speed and weight of attack, fielding three four-firefighter crews is a very effective strategy.
However from the start there were flaws in that view. First, the number of entries in a given year is less than a handful. Second, a second unit is perhaps a minute away. And third, a police officer could be trained to act as the fourth crewman until the second unit arrives.
It seems a waste of money to spend a million dollars per year for such a rare event.
The bigger issue is perhaps the total number of firefighters that Davis needs on duty at a given time. They argue that Davis needs more than 12 firefighters on duty and is therefore dependent on UC Davis.
“In the combined developed area of Davis and UCD, four fire stations staffed with a total of 15 firefighters on duty are wholly adequate to cover the entire area, if deployed as one system,” CityGate writes.
Since that time, Davis has moved to merge their operations with UC Davis.
Is CityGate now about to change its tune? It should be noted that CityGate is actually run by retired firefighters and therefore are generally favorably disposed toward maintaining the status quo. But also there are hints that they tailor their report for the council that they have to work with.
The last council was not about to shift to three-person crews, but this council likely will if given the opportunity.
It will be a holy fight, but the resources are such that it needs to happen. Most communities have swifted to three-person crews with little noticeable fall out.
Perhaps this is not the only swift shift on the horizon, as cities desperately try to find ways to stay afloat.
In the meantime on Wednesday, the Santa Clara County grand jury called “for a wholesale rethinking of fire departments and emergency responses, arguing that sending firefighters to what are now mostly medical calls is outdated and wasteful.”
The Mercury News reports, “A report by the watchdog panel found that 70 percent of fire department calls are medical emergencies, and just 4 percent are fire-related. But even so, firefighters respond as if they are heading to a fire, sending a crew of three or more on a truck or engine costing an average of $500,000 — five times the cost of an ambulance.”
These are, in fact, similar numbers to Davis.
The paper goes on to report, “Typically only one of the three arriving firefighters has medical training, the report said. That creates a ‘mismatch between service needed and service provided,’ with fire departments deploying ‘personnel who are overtrained to meet the need’ — that is, paramedics also trained as firefighters.”
Taxpayers can no longer afford to fund the status quo,” the report said. “Using firefighter-paramedics in firefighting equipment as first responders to all non-police emergencies is unnecessarily costly when less expensive paramedics on ambulances possess the skills needed to address the 96 percent of calls that are not fire-related.”
Naturally, the San Jose Fire Chief is skeptical. According to the paper, he “questioned whether private ambulance services can do the job faster and cheaper than firefighters. He argued that because they already are heavily staffed and widely deployed to tamp down fires, firefighters can respond more quickly, and it’s more cost-effective to give them paramedic training. An ambulance company would have to hire more medics to meet the firefighters’ response time targets, he said, and those costs would be passed on to patients and their insurers.”
“We have the personnel, and the service is compatible with advanced life support,” the fire chief said.
The relatively few fire calls is not the only similarity to Davis.
The paper continues, “The report sharply criticized politically influential firefighter unions, accusing them of stymieing efforts to ‘think outside the box’ to protect jobs. It argues that schedules allowing firefighters to live far outside the communities they serve ‘may unintentionally foster a culture of insensitivity to residents’ sentiments’ and a perception of being ‘entitlement-minded.’ “
“Unions are more interested in job preservation than in providing the right mix of capabilities at a reasonable cost, using scare tactics to influence the public,” the report said. “The result is a clear impression of firefighters as self-serving rather than community serving.”
This is certainly our experience in Davis, as well. It is notable that the major proposed changes in Davis are due, in fact, to changes on the council, where firefighter union-backed members Don Saylor and Ruth Asmundson have been replaced now with members with no ties to the firefighters’ union.
The firefighters did not endorse in the last city council election, in part because both Joe Krovoza and Rochelle Swanson refused their support. Likewise, Dan Wolk, as an appointed candidate, has no allegiance to the firefighters.
While there is legitimate concern with the quality of service, with creativity and looking out of the box, I believe we can find a way to be safe and smart at the same time.
There is no reason we need to deploy a full fire team every time there is a medical emergency. Our buildings are built to a high standard which means there are few fires that require building entry anyway.
We must be more cost-conscious. Unfortunately, we need to recognize that failure to maintain our roadways and other infrastructure are as much a public safety risk as cutbacks to the fire department.
It will be interesting to see if CityGate indeed recommends going to three-person crews and what the fallout will be from such a proposal.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
Is the Time Right to Move From 4 to 3 Person Firefighter Crews?
Yes
No need to bash firefighters here. It is a question of economics. The city cannot afford the status quo anymore. Whatever Citygate comes out with will be very interesting, to see if they fully understand the fiscal realities of what the city is facing in today’s abysmal economy. Let’s give the Davis/UCD fire departments a chance here, to do the right thing. I am in favor of giving them a specific operational budget, and let them decide how they will implement any budget cuts, just as Joe Krovoza did the other night with City Staff.
I had the unfortunate need to call 911 a couple of months ago.
The firefighters were prompt, professional and courteous. Only one help me, while they waited for the ambulance which arrived a minute later.
My question is why 3 or 4 firefighter responders, 2 makes even more sense.
That could mean a whopping 2 million dollars in savings for a city that desperately needs it.
While I agree that moving to minimum three person full time staffing would be more appropriate given the economic realities you are off base on several of your justifications. For the sake of brevity I’ll only include my favorites.
“And third, a police officer could be trained to act as the fourth crewman until the second unit arrives.” Yes they could be but to meet the OSHA standard you refer to he or she would have to go through the same training as a regular firefighter. I somehow doubt that there will be many volunteers unless you pay them as well as a firefighter because staying current on the training would require a significant time commitment.
A better option would be recruiting reserve firefighters to fill the fourth seat on a part time, minimum wage, no benefits basis. As you previously commented about the woodland FD recruitment it’s not like there’s a lack of willing and able people out there already trained and more or less good to go. This model works very well for many cities throughout the state and locally is used by UC Davis with its Student Resident Firefighter program. In fact, a good option if the merger progresses to its conclusion would be to expand the program to include the Davis stations as well.
You also reference the Santa Clara County Grand Jury Report.
I have done my best previously to explain the importance of having the available manpower a fire engine provides for medical calls. Sometimes it’s as simple as needing help to move large people but in critical emergencies such as heart attacks I can guarantee you that every available person will be utilized to get the job done well. I’m currently going through paramedic training and have discovered first hand how hard it is to adequately provide paramedic level care in critical cases with just myself and my partner. Having the extra hands available allows me as the paramedic to delegate tasks such as chest compressions, ventilation, scene control, and application of cardiac monitor and defibrillation pads while I work on IV access, drug administration, cardiac monitoring/controlling the defibrillator and trying to look at the big picture just to name a few things going on. Can a 2 person crew handle a cardiac arrest? Yes it can be done but I firmly believe that the patient would receive better care and and have a better outcome if the extra 3 or 4 trained personnel from the fire department appear to assist in a timely manner. Need a local example? UC Davis FD recently responded to a full arrest at the ARC and were able to administer early defibrillation prior to AMR’s arrival. That person is alive and fully recovered today. No the fire department doesn’t need to run on every bloody nose or stubbed toe that calls 911 but critical cases or those that have the potential to be come critical (chest pain, stroke, difficulty breathing to name a few) absolutely should have fire department response.
“Typically only one of the three arriving firefighters has medical training, the report said. That creates a ‘mismatch between service needed and service provided,’ with fire departments deploying ‘personnel who are overtrained to meet the need’ — that is, paramedics also trained as firefighters.” I love this part because on one hand you infer that Davis firefighters don’t have medical training. (they do its just basic life support) and then you infer that training firefighter paramedics is unnecessary. I’ve read the report and take issue with that part for a number of reasons but I truly feel the best service for medical calls is fire department operated ambulances each with a paramedic backed up by paramedic engine companies (as demonstrated in Vacaville and Sacramento County). Sadly the politics of the AMR contract make the chance of this happening in Davis slim to none.
[i]”… on one hand you infer that Davis firefighters don’t have medical training. (they do its just basic life support) …”[/i]
Every Davis firefighter is trained as an EMT. Is that what you mean by ‘basic life support’?
[i]”… and then you infer that training firefighter paramedics is unnecessary.”[/i]
If it were necessary to have firefighters on scene with paramedic training, I am sure the brass in our fire department would have recommended it already.
I studied a sample–I think it was a good, representative sample, but you might quibble with that–of the time it takes for the DFD and for AMR to arrive on scene. More often than not, I found that in Davis the DFD crew arrives first, the ambulance second*. However, the difference is mostly small and as EMTs the firefighters can do what is needed until the paramedic on the ambulance gets there. I thus would agree with the notion that, given our situation with AMR, we don’t need firefighters as paramedics.
*My best guess as to why the fire trucks tend to arrive first is this: We have three fire stations and normally two ambulance companies in Davis at any given time. So unless a medical call happens to be positioned very near where an idle ambulance is, chances are 3:2 one of our three fire stations will be physically closer. Further, the fact that ambulances (in serious cases) stay on scene longer and then transport their patients to the hospital means that if we get a handful of calls in succession, the ambulances are more likely to be busy or out of position (in transit).
[i]”… I truly feel the best service for medical calls is fire department operated ambulances each with a paramedic backed up by paramedic engine companies.”[/i]
What you are saying is that you would like to cut AMR out of the equation.
That won’t happen for many reasons–as you concede–not least of which is that the AMR service is based on county coverage (as well as the multi-county JPA agreement). The ambulances are constantly being repositioned–in ways that you cannot do if you put the whole program inside our fire department–to cover both rural parts of the county and as back-up when multiple calls are coming in to one of the cities.
Along the lines of this topic … A person very high up in the City of Davis recently suggested to me an idea which struck me as smart. We were talking about whether it makes sense to send one full fire truck from Engine 31 or 33 or two loaded trucks from Engine 32 (downtown) on every medical 911 call. I told him the evidence–that the fire companies tend to arrive on scene first–made me think this was the best option.
The problem with this, of course, is we end up having these massive fire trucks which burn a lot of fuel racing around town all day long. They make a racket, they put wear and tear on the fire trucks and our streets, and potentially they pose a danger to other cars, bikes and pedestrians. (I mentioned to my interlocutor that I had the day before seen a very near miss when an idiot emerging in his car out of the Richards Blvd subway onto First Street tried to cut in between the two fire trucks which were entering the underpass at high speed from E Street.)
The city leader suggested this alternative: put one fire-engine-red Prius in each fire station. When a medical call comes in, two fire fighters can hop in the Prius and rapidly, but safely drive to the medical emergency. The Prius can be pre-outfitted with whatever medical gear the two EMTs might need. Once the AMR ambulance arrives on scene, the two EMTs can get back in the Prius and drive back to their firehouse. If in the interim a fire call comes in, the two in the Prius can drive directly to the fire and meet the fire truck on scene.
I could not think of a serious objection to this person’s idea.
“Every Davis firefighter is trained as an EMT. Is that what you mean by ‘basic life support’?”
Yep as opposed to the paramedic and EMT provided on an AMR ambulance.
“If it were necessary to have firefighters on scene with paramedic training, I am sure the brass in our fire department would have recommended it already.”
The reason it hasn’t been and probably won’t be is the political pull of AMR. It’s a pitty because Solano and Sacramento counties both have had firefighter paramedics on engines for most agencies for years.
I agree completely with your informal survey. The difference isn’t normally that much unless like you said AMR is transporting or Woodland or West Sac is experiencing high call volumes. It does happen though.
There are examples of cities (Memphis, TN for example) using an SUV/pickup/some other smaller vehicle like you suggest to respond to low priority medical calls. In most of those cases one of the firefighters is a paramedic but there’s no reason such a concept couldn’t work in Davis with EMTs particularly since the city is relatively compact compared to others nearby.
“Yes they could be but to meet the OSHA standard you refer to he or she would have to go through the same training as a regular firefighter. I somehow doubt that there will be many volunteers unless you pay them as well as a firefighter because staying current on the training would require a significant time commitment. “
I know in previous discussions that there are a number of cities that cross-train emergency personnel. I don’t know the cost, but that would seem a possibility.
Sunnyvale is the only major CA city that cross trains firefighters and police. The major difference over your proposal is that ALL of their personnel serve in both roles rotating every two years or so. I suspect it would be neigh impossible to convince both unions to agree to this concept. Another more feasible cost saving approach is under way in Palo Alto where both fire and police management have been combined into one organization in much the same way that UC Fire and Davis Fire admin has merged. Both are covered in the Santa Clara County Grand Jury Report.