Since 1736, when Benjamin Franklin founded the first American volunteer fire company in Philadelphia, the ways in which fire, EMS and rescue services have been provided and deployed in the United States have been as incalculable as the number of firefighters who have served.
For the most part, each fire department develops their own individual model of service deployment, based on the assessed risks of their community (incident types, frequency and related hazards). These risks are coupled with the available resources of personnel, equipment, training, etc., and a standardized deployment model with the goal of the quickest, safest and most effective response is established.
For many years, the most common approach was to strategically locate a fire station in the heart of a community and deploy units from a central point (e.g., fire headquarters). As the community grew, satellite stations would be constructed, more engines, trucks and ambulances would be purchased, and balanced coverage would be maintained.
On Jan. 15, 1972, the standard response model for fire-based EMS in America was officially rewritten. The TV series Emergency! starring Randolph Mantooth and Kevin Tighe hit the airways, and firefighters and fire chiefs across the nation took notice. At the time, the concept of “Squad 51” and two field paramedics responding in a quick-response vehicle (QRV) was foreign to most fire departments. As the years passed, this innovative response system began to take hold, and fire departments across the country began deploying QRVs and paramedic chase vehicles to emergency medical incidents.
Over the years, as the debut of Squad 51 and Emergency! became more distant, the concept of paramedic engine companies (or first-response engines) became the latest form of emergency medical delivery by fire departments. This innovative delivery system provided a quicker response than the traditional EMS model, and it also provided more appropriate staffing for EMS calls and allowed firefighters to serve dual roles while maintaining immediate access to their apparatus and equipment in the event of a fire or rescue-related incident.
While the concept of running a fully equipped engine company to medical calls has proven to be effective in countless communities, it’s also been publicly questioned in more than one city due to the overall cost, increased maintenance demands and added risk factors. Despite that, the system has served and continues to serve many communities with proven success.
On Feb. 7, 1995, another game-changer to the standard response model occurred in St. Louis, MO. With the frequency of responses on the rise and apparatus-related accidents becoming equally frequent, St. Louis Fire Chief Neil J. Svetanics issued Memo 95-03, outlining 19 situations for which fire companies and chief officers would respond “on the quiet”—no emergency lights or sirens. The radical idea of non-emergency responses was foreign to many fire departments throughout the country, and was projected to lead to disastrous consequences of death and destruction. Yet more than 25 years later, no cities have burned to the ground, and now nearly every fire department in America employs some form of “on the quiet” response.
Today, the challenges of response continue to evolve from coast to coast, and the creativity and innovation of fire service leaders continues to break the templates of years past. In Los Angeles, where the EMS system is frequently overtaxed and abused, the fire department has launched a new program called the Sobriety Emergency Response—or SOBER—Unit that will be used to transport publicly intoxicated people to a sobriety center downtown.
In San Diego, the fire department is making plans to deploy roving “peak-hour” fire engines not connected to any particular station to offset increased demands in congested areas of the city and to reduce response times to 7.5 minutes 90 percent of the time.
The days of traditional, one-track deployments and longstanding 2-1 assignments (two engines, one truck) are becoming more distant. While it is unknown who or what will serve as the next influential factor to set the stage for the next creative wave of deployment, one thing is for sure: The American fire service will rise to the occasion with creativity and innovation to meet the demand.
