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Wash. fire dept. announces 24/7 paramedic staffing

All 16 Spokane Fire Department stations will now be staffed with paramedics at all times due to an increasing number of medical calls

By EMS1 Staff

SPOKANE, Wash. — A fire department announced that they will now have paramedics at all stations 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

KREM reported that each of the Spokane Fire Department’s 16 stations will be staffed with paramedics at all times due to an increasing number of medical calls.

“The overwhelming majority of emergencies that we respond to involve a medical nature and the complexity of those incidents are ever-increasing,” Chief Brian Schaeffer said. “Currently our life-threatening incidents year-to-date are 12 percent last years, and the data indicates that the trend is showing no sign of decreasing.”

Out of the 40,304 calls the department received in 2017, 32,047 were medical emergencies.

The department currently has 98 paramedics, and all 365 firefighters employed are EMT certified.

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