ALS Engines Downtown

Chief Groothoff led the meeting off with some interesting news regarding the deployment of ALS engines downtown. In light of the fact that there was no prior notice (in the form of asterisks on a vacancy list) the downtown companies, including stations 1,3,8,16,36, and 41, will not be required to send that extra body to an out of house detail, Instead, they will run the truck 1+5 or the engine 1+4, when staffing is over citywide. This will be the practice while the Department is able to maintain it. That is while the City is “fat”. When we no longer have the bodies for these accommodations, the details will be out of house, leaving the engines ALS. As positions vacate in these companies the spots will be advertised on the vacancy list as asterisked H-3 positions. Engines slated to be ALS will include: 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 28, 29, 33, 36, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, and 48.

Reserve ALS engines deployed when personnel is available will include 38 and 31 as well as medic 9.

FF/PM Truck Training

Truck training for H-3s will begin during this rotation. There will be approximately 21 H-3s beginning there truck training, the specific trucks have not been mentioned, but the trucks will be BLS and remain in that status for the training. The truck training will be done on seniority basis, all H-3s will, eventually, receive it.

1+1 Ambulances

As of yet there is not a concrete list of exactly which ambulances will be 1 + 1 and which will be maintained as dual medic. In any case, the dispatch system will recognize all ambulances as 1+1 in preparation of the future.

EMTs qualified for 1+1

Starting in mid April, or when the rotation occurs, the EMTs on the ambulance will be staffed as follows:

Currently there are approximately 340 qualified EMTs who are in a VR status, this staff will be utilized on a rotating basis for the 1 + 1 ambulances. Two EMTs will share a spot on an ambulance which will be their home company, they will be detailed out every other watch to an engine or a truck. They should be spending 50% of there time between an ambulance and a truck or an engine.

EMT staff for the 1 + 1 ambulance will be chosen by reverse seniority. This means that the people who are on the ambulance now, the newest members are subject to stay there but a second member will be added so work time can be distributed better.

Staff or former staff at ECD are subject to ambulance rotation, it is being done by reverse seniority.

If anyone is interested in becoming an EMT qualified to work on an ambulance there will be a class offered, prior to the vacancy list at the end of the years.

There are plans for a refresher class for EMTs who am qualified for the ambulance but have not been rotated there in the past years.

I hope some of your questions have been answered with this information. The committee continues to meet on a monthly basis. I will continue to keep the information flowing as best I can. Good luck with the new implementations.

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