Pittsburgh Firefighters' New Skills May Change Role of Paramedics

With enhancements in certification and training, the Pittsburgh Fire Bureau is evolving into an "all hazards" department that's crossing into areas traditionally handled by paramedics and fueling questions about the future role of the paramedic corps.

In recent years, the fire bureau has taken steps to provide firefighters with training in vehicle extrication, swift water rescue and emergency medical care -- all the traditional province of paramedics. Since the 2010 blizzard, the city has increased the use of fire trucks on medical calls.

Fire Chief Darryl Jones said the bureau's 560 or so members all are certified at the "Firefighter II" level, something unusual for a metropolitan department. A Firefighter II has more skills, and may work on the fire ground with more independence, than someone with Firefighter I certification.

Officials said some of the enhancements are designed to maximize use of public safety resources. The city has more firefighters and fire stations than paramedics and paramedic stations, so firefighters often can get to a call faster. In addition, with fewer fires than medical calls in the city, firefighters have time for additional duties.

All newly hired firefighters are certified as emergency medical technicians, who can perform CPR and provide other medical care but aren't able to perform as many functions as paramedics. The department also has offered veteran firefighters a course to let them achieve EMT certification.

The increased training and higher certification level reflect the changing status of firefighting. Gone, Chief Jones said, are the days when the firefighter's primarily credentials were being a "tough guy and a little bit 'off,' because you were running into a burning building when everyone else was running out."

"This is no longer a job. It's a profession. In order to be a profession, you have to meet certain standards," he said.

Public Safety Director Michael Huss, the former city fire chief, said the city's various public safety bureaus should "work together as a team to provide the best service we can."

Yet the firefighters' new duties have added a dynamic to the perennially tense relations between the fire and paramedic bureaus. The paramedics' last contract expired in December 2010, and calls to shift some responsibilities to the fire bureau are believed to be part of the protracted negotiations.

Paramedics union president Anthony Weinmann said his members have been the sole provider of rescue services in the city for about 35 years and are proud of the work they do.

Mr. Weinmann said it's curious that the city wants to train firefighters for medical calls when it discontinued the paramedic bureau's own emergency medical technician program for financial reasons in 2003. He said firefighters are better paid than the emergency medical technicians were.

He had little to say about the additional training for firefighters.

When the city posted an unusually high 16.4 percent resuscitation rate in cardiac arrest calls, paramedics announced the milestone with pride. But firefighters said they deserve credit for getting to many calls first and starting care before paramedics arrive.

A quick response "is the most important component of survivability," firefighters union president Joe King said.

In 2008, a consulting firm retained by the city's state-appointed financial overseers called for the fire bureau to become the kind of "all hazards" department that is increasingly common across the nation. That included assuming more responsibility for rescue operations.

The city's amended financial recovery plan, adopted by city council in 2009, "directs the city to build rescue capacity" in the fire department. The medics were in the middle of the last contract when the amended recovery plan was adopted, so this is the city's first opportunity to negotiate changes in rescue services.

The fire bureau's evolution dates to about 2005, when fire academy cadets began graduating with the Firefighter II designation, which includes rescue training and certification as emergency medical technicians.

In 2009, Chief Jones said, he launched a program to elevate a couple hundred veterans to Firefighter II status, a process that took more than a year to complete. Last fall, he offered veterans an EMT course, and about 120 participated.

After a flash flood killed four people on Washington Boulevard in August, the city announced that it was creating new swift water rescue teams comprising firefighters, police and paramedics. But the fire bureau's rescue work is still limited; Mr. King said not all trucks are equipped with an array of rescue tools.

Ken Willette, manager of the Public Fire Protection Division of the National Fire Protection Association, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that sets firefighter training standards, said he'd never before heard of a metropolitan department with all members certified at the Firefighter II level.

"That's a huge achievement, one they should be very proud of," he said.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service