The Sun Journal
LIVERMORE FALLS, Maine — Selectmen voted 3-2 Monday to allow the Fire Department to seek a state emergency medical license, Town Manager Kristal Flagg said Tuesday. Chairman Bill Demaray and Selectman Ken Pelletier opposed the vote, she said.
The board does not want the Department to be licensed to be considered a tiered first responder, Flagg said.
Instead, this type license will allow qualified firefighters to begin medical treatment when called out to an accident or a fire prior to an ambulance crew arriving, she said.
The cost is $517.
Livermore firefighters respond with NorthStar Emergency Medical Services ambulance crews to emergencies that put them in direct contact with injured people, fire Chief Gerry Pineau said in a news release Wednesday.
The emergency medical license will give the Department approval to provide medical care and use medical supplies and medical equipment that is used on the emergency scenes while treating patients, he said.
The license will allow the firefighters to have another “tool in our tool box” at scenes where they are called to service as a Fire Department, Pineau said.
The Department will not respond to every medical call within the community, he said. That kind of a system is called a tiered response.
It will work closely with Mike Senecal, operations manager of NorthStar and Joanne Lebrun, director of Tri-County Emergency Medical Services to obtain the license through the State Department Maine Emergency Medical System.
NorthStar has offered to supply all the medical equipment needed to obtain the state license, he said.
“I am excited that we have decided to do this licensing process,” Pineau said. “It will give the fire officers and firefighters liability insurance, but most of all the tools to provide increased care to our community that we are so proud to serve.”
In other Fire Department business Monday, selectmen unanimously voted to have a part of the Hurst Jaws of Life tool fixed at a cost of $2,183.
The scissor portion of the Department’s tool is broken, she said. The hydraulic tool is 10 years old.
The Department is using a tool on loan from Winthrop Fire Department, but the town really needs its own, Flagg said.
Buying a new Jaws of Life would cost $27,668, she said.
The $2,183 to repair the tool will be taken out of the Fire Department’s budget.
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