The Hialeah fire department stripped life-saving paramedic equipment -- including intubation kits to help patients breathe and defibrillation pads to revive children -- from its fire trucks Tuesday, only to undo the changes after what the city called a misunderstanding.
The move happened after fire department brass discussed the possibility of doing away with the equipment in the future to save money. That "brainstorming," said Fire Chief Marcos De La Rosa, was incorrectly interpreted as an order to remove the equipment.
"As soon as I got word, I reversed the course and had those trucks stocked," he said.
But by then, news of the removals had gotten around, raising questions about whether it was a consequences of drastic fire department cuts and layoffs last week -- and highlighting the city's charged political environment.
Mario Pico, president of the Hialeah firefighters union, denounced removing any paramedic supplies from the city's seven fire engines.
"You're taking the tools away that would save somebody's life," he said. Mayor Carlos Hernandez called the union's reaction a scare tactic.
There was also swift, if indirect, pushback from Miami-Dade County.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief William "Shorty" Bryson sent an email around noon to nearby cities, around the same time firefighters were told to restock the trucks, warning them that Hialeah's action could violate a longstanding agreement that departments will not reduce their fire services "to a level that requires mutual aid services on a daily basis."
"I think it is time, as participants of the Countywide Mutual Aid agreement that we start getting status reports on what is transpiring," Bryson wrote. "Based [on] the plans, it may be time to communicate with the Hialeah administration regarding our concerns."
Hialeah's aborted attempt to get rid of "advanced life-support supplies" -- medicine such as epinephrine and lidocaine, heart-monitoring equipment and CPR machines -- followed a unanimous decision by the city council last week to axe the fire department's force by almost 40 percent. The decision will result in 105 firefighter/paramedics layoffs by March.
The first batch of 14 firefighters and nine trainees lost their jobs on Saturday, the first day of the fiscal year. Twelve vacant positions were also eliminated.
The mayor and council members have said the union forced their hand by not agreeing to concessions as the city faced a $13.7 million budget deficit. The union has countered that it was willing to make concessions if Hialeah opened its financial books.
Both sides said Tuesday that trucks are operating normally.
"Nothing has changed," Hernandez emphasized.
But the city could save money in the future by removing the advanced emergency supplies, because it would not have to pay extra for a paramedic to ride on the trucks. Hialeah is already eliminating the four percent extra pay it used to offer paramedics riding fire engines, for a savings of about $233,000 a year.
Were removal of the supplies to become permanent, the union warned, if a fire truck were the first vehicle to arrive at an emergency any victims would not receive advanced paramedic care until a separate fire-rescue unit arrived. Fire trucks would still carry basic materials, such as heart-pressure cuffs and stethoscopes.
Chief De La Rosa noted that the city did not provide advanced paramedic services on fire trucks before 2006 -- and that most municipalities do not equip all of their engines with those supplies.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
