Fire Brigade show up for unconscious kid?

Did it happen in Dublin?

All DFB staff are both fire fighters and paramedics so a fire unit might be available and/or close at the time.

I think you need six or eight people to lift someone if there is a suspicion of a spinal injury.

markpb wrote: »

seven_eleven wrote: »

You would think people living in Dublin would know this by now but yeah, they're not just firefighters. They're paramedics too.

There's no reason for most people to know or care (until they need them)

and when they do it's an "ambulance driver" and a first aider that shows up according to some anyway

james142 wrote: »

Hello.

Yesterday I witnessed a young kid fall headfirst into a brick wall. He somehow managed to trip while running full speed at a wall (Guessing he was trying to jump onto it or something) anyway he seemed to be unconscious or barely conscious before the emergency services showed up.

However, the fire brigade showed up a good 5 minutes before an ambulance came to treat the guy. I'm just wondering why the dispatcher sent out a fire crew to an unconscious kid? Perhaps there were no available e ambulances at the time? Or was it so they could charge the school he was from with the €300 odd call out charge?

Kindest Regards,
James.

Dublin Fire Brigade have many trained paramedics. If a fire Brigade can protect the area if necessary until a garda arrive to control any traffic or crowd control. Often especially in this deep rescission an Ambulance could be held up in the Hospital or have numerous call out that it s safer for a Fire Brigade to be dispatched and also keep up their paramedics skills up with continued experience at many aid them during a fire event.

I fully support them on their work.
http://irishfireservices.ie/dublin-fire-brigade/emergency-ambulance

What everybody else said is correct. They respond to most emergencies as are fully trained paramedics on board. Whoever can be dispatched the quickest i would say.

sjb25 wrote: »

and when they do it's an "ambulance driver" and a first aider that shows up according to some anyway

Are we allowed use these terms when they're literally true? In the vols, there's quite a few drivers with no medical training at all, and some are crewed with responders (EFR and below). Still feels wrong though...
Unfortunately I agree with you that is the case in some units in my unit thankfully not any ambulance crewed with at least one Emt and all our drivers either Emt or efr but yes there is 1 or 2 ofa drivers..... But none with No training at all but i have come across them with none i dont agree with it and It's the cowboys who go out crewing ambulances with efrs and bellow only gives the rest of us trying to do it right a bad name and makes the public see us this way sounds horrible tho especially when people are talking about paramedics calling them ambulance drivers.......

Coming away from Dublin, even the retained Fire crews are trained up to EMT these days so it's great.
And personally, if a collapse happened and I called for help, I wouldn't care if it's an ambulance, a squad car or a fire truck, hell even an icecream van with a retained firefighter on board would do, help is help and could save a life.

On a side note, again away from Dublin, do all fire stations have defibrillators? and if a cardiac call comes in that has a fire station closer then an ambulance, would that fire crew be dispatched by control?

flazio wrote: »

Coming away from Dublin, even the retained Fire crews are trained up to EMT these days so it's great.
And personally, if a collapse happened and I called for help, I wouldn't care if it's an ambulance, a squad car or a fire truck, hell even an icecream van with a retained firefighter on board would do, help is help and could save a life.

On a side note, again away from Dublin, do all fire stations have defibrillators? and if a cardiac call comes in that has a fire station closer then an ambulance, would that fire crew be dispatched by control?

Away for Dublin as you mentioned, I know for a fact a situation that arose in Cork City a few years ago.
The City fire dept were called out to attend to a gent who had a suspected heart attack.
As a lot of you know, HSE provide the Ambulance coverage in Cork, but on this particular evening they were under pressure and did not have a vehicle which was not tied up at the particular time.
So a Fire engine attended to the man and saved his life, a few minutes later a HSE Ambulance showed up and brought the chap to hospital.

So does it really matter who provides a service which saves lives, that is the one thing all blue light services have in common.

Richie15 wrote: »

sjb25 wrote: »

Unfortunately I agree with you that is the case in some units in my unit thankfully not any ambulance crewed with at least one Emt and all our drivers either Emt or efr but yes there is 1 or 2 ofa drivers..... But none with No training at all but i have come across them with none

You've either got the highest trained unit in the country, or very few duties to do.

sjb25 wrote: »

i dont agree with it and It's the cowboys who go out crewing ambulances with efrs and bellow only gives the rest of us trying to do it right a bad name...

I don't appreciate your use of the term "cowboys." EFR is quite a high standard of training, not enough for an emergency ambulance by any means, but more than adequate for most event cover. You don't seem to be appreciating the level of care provided by an experienced crew, far beyond what a €2,500 piece of paper can give you.

You're also forgetting that driving is a separate skill too. Voluntary organisations can't afford to insure everybody, so if you need two medical crew and an ambulance, and you've three volunteers (one driver with no medical training, two responders who aren't insured to drive) what's the problem there?

We actually are an extremely busy unit 3 ambulances out every weekend both days most of the time we are just lucky we have a lot of commited efrs and emts and most 80% happin to be drivers aswell and nobody in the unit is below ofa we are just extreamly lucky I'm sorry did not mean to offend anybody and I do agree with you give me a good efr or even a good first aider over any bad Emt a piece of paper dont make anybody a good emt and i belive you should have to be an efr before going on an emt coarse i myself was a first aider cfr efr and now Emt so I don't think any of them levels are not capable some a great and wel capable of covering events but any ambulance should have at least one Emt onboard and I know thats perfect world and that's hard for units but that's how I feel about it I'm sorry for the cowboy comment it was the wrong choice of words on reflection and I have absolutely no problem with drivers with no medical training they can be an asset I obviously worded it all wrong I apologise

djor88 wrote: »

DFB are all paramedics, the dispatcher would have sent a full crew or whatever was available at the time, the ambulance may well have been out on a call at the time, that's why the engine arrived. Also, in case it was a spinal, they need a crew to lift. Better safe than sorry! The DFB aren't sending engines out to gain €300 on a call out.

Would € 300 even cover the cost of it?

I like how that last bit brings our tangent nicely back on-topic! :P[/Quote]
It was al planned...... 😉

Local fire station has some very good retained crew & are great at the scene of RTCs. Some have trained themselves privately or through the vols up to EFR & EMT, however SO/CC, or other powers that be refuse to get any of PHECC training done for the station or to carry ambulance equipment such as defib, monitor etc. This is due to the high costs & training required of sending out a retained crew to a patient, to what could be indigestion! I believe this to be the same in other local stations as well?...

wreckless wrote: »

...treat the patient but remain MAV on scene.

MAV = Mobile Available?

But they're not available while treating, at least not until the other crew shows up.

indeed APC, thanks.