10-06-2021, 08:32 PM
(10-06-2021, 10:08 AM)tomh009 Wrote: I'd like to see a breakdown of the calls that they responded to. Based on my (earlier) reading, as well as anecdotal observations, a lot of the calls the fire department responds to are medical only, and there is little need for a giant fire truck to be sent out. The number of actual fires has been on a rather steady decline for a very long time.
Maybe more of those medical calls could be redirected to paramedics, and, if necessary, we could add another paramedic crew or two?
Does data like this ever get published? I certainly agree that if the increase in demand is due to medical calls, increase medical capacity.
I'm quite interested in the data though, as anecdotally it's seemed to skew towards fire. I've come across two (potential) overdoses here, one of which all 3 emergency services showed up for. I've personally had to deal with the fire department for fires 4 times, 3 of which were "irregular" (i.e. set by homeless or mentally unwell people). I've also watched the fire department respond to another handful of fires that didn't directly pertain to me, some regular, some irregular. That said, the fire department certainly responds to more medical calls than just overdoses, and I'm sure the majority of overdoses are not very public compared to fires.
I guess my point though is if overdoses are a driver of increased medical calls, then I can definitely see fire calls increasing to. As my personal experience: drugs, mental illness, and fires seem to have a not insignificant correlation.