Ohio Department Out of Service due to Lack in Oxygen

[MemphisE34a]

From the front page:

After notifying Reliance Oxygen that the department would be making a vendor change come Jan. 1, the company stripped the entire station of oxygen, Fire Chief James Verbosky told the news station.

Crews were left hoping they wouldn't be called out to service without the key life-saving tool.

"It'd be like a fire truck going to a fire without any hose or any water," Verbosky said. "In the event we have something bad go wrong -- cardiac arrest, somebody having difficulty breathing -- we need oxygen."

Rossford fire received some assistance from Northwood, in the form of two spare oxygen bottles, according to the report.

While they were out of service, mutual aid stepped in, Verbosky said.

"Our mutual aid partners are our friends," he said. "It's nice to know when we're in a pinch we can call them, they can call us, and everything's taken care of."

Rossford's new vendor has since made a delivery and they are fully stocked with oxygen and ready to respond.

The chief says a call has been placed to the Better Business Bureau and WTOL-TV called Reliance Oxygen for comment, but the call was not returned.

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Maybe I am reading to much into this, but why would you put yourself out of service due to a lack in oxygen bottles. Maybe it's just terminology. To me, "out of service" means that you are closed. The dispatcher will not notify you of any incidents.

So back to the question? Were they "closed" for fire calls because they didn't have any O2? Silly.

[Catch22]

After watching the video, I would assume it was just their EMS units out of service as opposed to the entire department.

[tree68]

After watching the video, I would assume it was just their EMS units out of service as opposed to the entire department.

Agreed, based on this story from a local newspaper. It does say that the O2 was taken off the apparatus as well, leading me to believe they probably have jump bags on the engines.

Sounds more sensational to imply the whole department was out of service, though...

[DeputyMarshal]

I'm still tryng to figure out how "the company [presumably Reliance Oxygen] stripped the entire station of oxygen." Did they just walk into the station and start removing equipment?

[fire0099881]

Are the Rossford guys still on here? (It's been a while since I have been on here, not that it looks like I missed much!!!!) if so I am sure they would be glad to tell us exactly what happened, b/c we know how the news reporters are always correct in how they report things!! If I would have to venture a guess they took the EMS side of their dept. out of service since they didn't have all of the proper equipment to do their job in an emergency if need be and be liable had something happened. (We know how sue happy people are in this day and age!) Since they are right outside the city of toledo, I would believe their mutual aid depts that was covering them would not of had too much more of a response time into their area. But I could be wrong!

[snowball]

I think there's a couple of guys on here from Rossford. I'll wait to hear their version before I trust a media source.

[tree68]

I'm still tryng to figure out how "the company [presumably Reliance Oxygen] stripped the entire station of oxygen." Did they just walk into the station and start removing equipment?

Kinda sounds like it. I'd guess that the department was leasing all of the bottles, so aside from being a couple of days early, the company had every right to take them all.

[snowball]

Are the Rossford guys still on here? (It's been a while since I have been on here, not that it looks like I missed much!!!!) if so I am sure they would be glad to tell us exactly what happened, b/c we know how the news reporters are always correct in how they report things!! If I would have to venture a guess they took the EMS side of their dept. out of service since they didn't have all of the proper equipment to do their job in an emergency if need be and be liable had something happened. (We know how sue happy people are in this day and age!) Since they are right outside the city of toledo, I would believe their mutual aid depts that was covering them would not of had too much more of a response time into their area. But I could be wrong!

Damn, ninja'd again...

[fire0099881]

Damn, ninja'd again...

haha glad to see we are thinking along the same lines!!

[DeputyMarshal]

Kinda sounds like it. I'd guess that the department was leasing all of the bottles, so aside from being a couple of days early, the company had every right to take them all.

Not if they had a contract through the end of the month, which is what the newspaper account says and what woud make the most sense.

If they were leased the company couldn't legally just decide to come get them "a couple of days early" without being in violation of the lease. As long as the lease was in force, the oxygen "belonged" to the FD. Who let them into the firehouse to take the oxygen anyway?

[ChiefKN]

I wish they'd take the oxygen off our rigs too.

[ffmedcbk1]

I wish they'd take the oxygen off our rigs too.

ditto, no ems???? what would i do????

[tree68]

Not if they had a contract through the end of the month, which is what the newspaper account says and what woud make the most sense....

Agreed. I was going to go back in and edit my post to indicate that they were being pretty petty about it. A class outfit would have come in on January 3rd to pick up their stuff...

[islandfire03]

ditto, no ems???? what would i do????

You'd probably be on the unemployment line after the dept budget got cut.
Lets face it with a few exceptions in the hoods, If your dept does EMS it's generally 75 -85 % of the call volume.
We are now an EMS transport system that occasionally responds to a fire call with big red trucks.

[dday05]

You'd probably be on the unemployment line after the dept budget got cut.
Lets face it with a few exceptions in the hoods, If your dept does EMS it's generally 75 -85 % of the call volume.
We are now an EMS transport system that occasionally responds to a fire call with big red trucks.

True statement. EMS might not be the greatest thing ever but.... I am ok with running EMS and catching some good workers in between. Beats the alternative though like working in a shop or something!

[LaFireEducator]

Not if they had a contract through the end of the month, which is what the newspaper account says and what woud make the most sense.

If they were leased the company couldn't legally just decide to come get them "a couple of days early" without being in violation of the lease. As long as the lease was in force, the oxygen "belonged" to the FD. Who let them into the firehouse to take the oxygen anyway?

By the same token, the "new supplier" couldn't deliver new cylinders early?

Most O2 supplier have a pretty healthy supply of cylinders at their shop.

I guess I'd be taking a second look the the "new supplier"

[hwoods]

Since they were back up and running in 3 hours, someone did something relatively quick...........

[Catch22]

By the same token, the "new supplier" couldn't deliver new cylinders early?

Most O2 supplier have a pretty healthy supply of cylinders at their shop.

I guess I'd be taking a second look the the "new supplier"

You're assuming a few things, like the fact that the new supplier already had cylinders ready to go for them.

Bottom line is Company A had a contract to fullfill until a certain date and Company B starts on a certain date. Company A is obligated to supply oxygen per the contract.

For all we know, the new supplier got cylinders to them as soon as they could. However, to expect them to get oxygen cylinders to the FD within hours of Company A breeching the contract is an asinine expectation.

[Weruj1]

Hi everyone ............this is our department, this is was handled mostly by me although on vacation, so the Chief got to deal with it in real time.

we opted to go with a different vendor, to make this short and sweet, Reliance could do what they did, there was NO written contract, but they came and took their cylinders earlier than the agreed upon time. We rented from them...........this is did put us essentially out of business (EMS wise) until we got our new vendor in and got some O2 from our mutual aid neighbor.

We run 2 ALS transports 1 ALS engine co and 1 ALS truck and an ILS engine co.

anymore questons .................holla back !

[hwoods]

anymore questons .................holla back !

Yeah, 1 more question....... Where the Heck ya been???.........:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!........