By Owen Covington
Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, Kentucky)
Copyright 2006 Messenger-Inquirer
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
For 15 years of his nearly 30-year career in firefighting, Owensboro Fire Chief Ronnie Heep worked with the ambulance service on the days he wasn’t at the firehouse.
It took time and experience to learn to handle the demands and stresses of the emergency medical field, which can be different from those in firefighting, he said.
“It took me a while to feel really comfortable providing that level of care,” Heep said of his work with the ambulance service.
Heep’s firefighters are working to develop that same level of comfort on their way to becoming first responders for emergency medical runs, which will likely happen ahead of schedule.
Since the spring, the Owensboro Fire Department has been undergoing additional training to be able to provide emergency medical care in situations where people are suffering heart attacks, are unconscious or other types of medical emergencies.
The department has now moved to the final level of training and is acting as a secondary responder with Yellow Ambulance Service, which will call upon the department for assistance on certain emergencies.
About 80 percent of the department’s members are trained as emergency medical technicians, Heep said, so this year’s training has focused on firefighters becoming more comfortable using the medical knowledge they have.
Since the spring, firefighters have been riding with the ambulance service on calls and have received more specific training from the service’s EMTs and paramedics, Heep said.
“They have been such a help to the department in the training phase,” Heep said.
Now, firefighters will be called out to respond to medical emergencies by the ambulance service, Heep said. The idea is that a rescue or fire truck will arrive on the scene at the same time as the ambulance service to assist.
“It’s allowing us to work side-by-side with their paramedics and EMTs to get that hands-on experience,” Heep said.
By this fall, the city’s dispatchers will be making calls about when firefighters need to be dispatched to a medical emergency, Heep said.
When the department first began training to make emergency medical runs, the idea was to be in a position to be first responders by January when a new rescue truck for the department is scheduled to arrive, Heep said.
“I just feel as chief that it’s important to implement this program as quickly as we can,” Heep said.
Because firehouses are spread throughout the city, often firefighters can get to the scene faster than an ambulance and begin life-saving procedures, Heep said.
Heep anticipates the department making between two and three emergency medical runs a day once they become first responders.
But it will likely take time for the firefighters to be confident in their ability to act in a medical role, Heep said.
“Obviously this is a life-saving service, but it can be a very stressful service to provide,” Heep said. “We’re trying to prepare them.”