“ Most fire departments have medical personnel that who might work for an ambulance service , and some are just emergency medical technicians ,” Halcomb stated . “ If they page an ambulance out for a heart attack or an unresponsive patient in places like Faubush , it ’ s going take the ambulance service 20 minutes to get there , but usually we can be there within five or 10 minutes .
“ If we can get to a patient a few minutes earlier than the ambulance service , that sometimes could be the difference whether somebody lives or dies because all of our trucks carry AEDs ,” he added . “ Most every fire department in the county has CPR and IED trained personnel on it , whether they ’ re an EMT or a paramedic . Many times we get a head start on a medical emergency , which could save a life .”
Both county and city fire department personnel constantly make their rounds to the local school systems to train younger kids on fire safety .
“ The volunteer fire departments try to go to the local schools and do fire prevention education with the smaller kids ,” Halcomb added . “ We teach them how to do escape routes , fire plans , and gathering points outside their house in case something happens . We try to start them at a young age , and try to instill that into the kids . We try to do as much community awareness training as we can .”
And while an active fire scene may look like pure chaos to the outside observer , Howard explained that all fires are attacked with a team-like strategy with constant communication and strategic changes as the fire evolves .
The city fire department has different levels of supervision on a fire scene . The incident commander , whose entire job is accountability of the whole personnel , knows where everyone is at and he knows what they need . They are accountable for all personnel on the scene . The incident commander ’ s entire job is to get the firefighters what they need . If they need more people , they
20 Commonwealth Journal - Unsung Heroes - 2024