Dispatching EMS

[DonSmithnotTMD]

I was reading a NIOSH report a few minutes ago. This question has nothing to do with the substance of the report.

One of the other events that was going on was a search for a possible victim
"T9 fire fighters spoke with a confused resident of the house and confirmed that at least one female was trapped upstairs."

Five minutes later:
"two T9 fire fighters found an unconscious female in a bedroom at the
top of the stairs to the left, and extricated her to the front yard where CPR was performed and an ambulance called."

My question is: If EMS isn't part of the initial response, when do you call, at the report of a possible victim or when you actually find somebody?

Before you ask the report is here: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/fire/pdfs/face200619.pdf
There's some pretty good basic CO information starting on page 6.

[swarmy]

EMS should be part of the initial response. If it isn't, you'll have to dedicate FIRE resources to triage and treatment.

My department dispatches an ALS transport unit on all reported structure fires. If it turns out to be a working fire, another ALS transport unit is dispatched.

[Weruj1]

this is always fun here too .............at my depatment all apparatus carry medicl gear from ILS through ALS. As far a transport if staffing allows we send one of our own or request a rig mutual aid.

Where I work full time dispatching EMS only...we send an ALS transport unit on working fires vs a tactical box. If there is any report of anyone trapped or it is listed as unkown if occupied then it goes automatically.

[resQengine]

I dispatch part time for an ambulance service that covers a city with a career fire department. If the fire dept. lays a line, no matter what the call is, that is when we send the ambulance. Of course we send one to anything else upon their request as well. In my fire department (volunteer), we provide our own ems. The ambulance is sent on initial dispatch if manpower allows it. If we do not have manpower, an ambulance is called in mutal aid.

[voyager9]

BLS is dispatched on the initial
A second BLS is added when its confirmed working fire.
ALS is optionally added depending on the report/request of IC.
ALS is added on Mayday (of course one could argue its too late)

[Dave1983]

this is always fun here too .............at my depatment all apparatus carry medicl gear from ILS through ALS. As far a transport if staffing allows we send one of our own or request a rig mutual aid.

Where I work full time dispatching EMS only...we send an ALS transport unit on working fires vs a tactical box. If there is any report of anyone trapped or it is listed as unkown if occupied then it goes automatically.

Same here. We are EMS (ALS level) but we dont do transport, so we get a transport unit on all workers to stand by for our people. If we find a victim, a second transport unit is called to replace the first when they transport the victim.

[DeputyChiefGonzo]

EMS transports are by a private service at the Paramedic level.

We request them to respond for all working fires as part of the initial dispatch for the safety of our personnel and for treatment of potential victims.

[st42stephenAFT]

I believe we just changed this. We used to have the squad with us on a lot of alarm calls. Now we just have them hold in quarters. But if it's anything where there's victims, or FF's could get hurt, (working fire, rescue, MVA (if they're not on scene already)) we'll have them respond usually. But we're holding them in quarters for the alarms we get now.