FF/EMT- old idea or new idea?

The Firehouse.com news listed an article from Honolulu that the fire department was finishing its first class of "medically trained" firefighters.

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/ar.../ln/ln11a.html


It sounds like they are excited about making this move, and how its taken years to get this point.

So, here's my point. It sounds incredible to me that there would be such a large city (though a long way from most of us) that was just now making the move to train their people as EMTs or 1st responders.

Isn't such an idea pretty old now? Aren't most cities training their people to do at least the very basic medical skills? I mean regardless of the running EMS calls issue the training would benefit the guys themselves...fire scene injuries, sudden cardiac arrest at the station, and such.

I am not attacking them for just doing it, or people who don't want to run EMS calls. That's not it. Just wondering if people feel that medical training is pretty much standard these days regardless if you are running medical calls or not.

Thanks!

In both the area where I work and where I live if your not a
firefighter/paramedic it is pretty hard to find a job. Many
places hire ff/EMT with the stipulation that you must become a
medic in 2-4 years. Some big dept's still hire ff/EMT's but most
require you to be a medic or at least in medic school. With the
realization that we run 75-80% medical calls and 20-25% fire and other
calls, it's just progression catching up to the fire dept
that everyone have medical training.

Massachusetts law requires that all public safety personnel be trained to a minimum of the first responder level.

in my FD, we get 2% of base salary for being first responder, and 5% of base salary for being an EMT, so a firefighter/EMT gets 7% of base salary.