ABSTRACT: A Scenario is presented to illuminate the Carmel Professional Firefighters’ position that a paramedic as the third person on the Carmel Fire Engine is critical and essential to the health, safety and welfare of all Carmelites. COMMENTS are made with regard to the current untenable situation involving the City Administrator, City Council and the Carmel Professional Firefighters and a Solution is presented.
par•a•med•ic
n.
A person who is trained to give emergency medical treatment or assist medical professionals.
Scenario: A 911 call from a Carmel-by-the-Sea resident at the scene of a residential structural fire. The Carmel Fire Engine with two Firefighters, a Captain and Fire Engineer, departs the Carmel Fire Station enroute to the scene of the emergency; the Carmel Regional Fire Ambulance (CRFA) is on another call away from Carmel-by-the-Sea. Within 2-3 minutes, the Carmel Fire Engine arrives at the scene of the residential structural fire. Two residents, a husband and wife, are trapped in the burning residence. Still without four additional Firefighters from Cypress who are automatically enroute to the scene, the two Carmel Firefighters enter the residence. The Firefighters rescue the husband and wife from the burning residence, but both are unconscious and require medical assistance. Minutes pass, and the automatic aid CFRA from Mid-Valley arrives up to ten to twelve minutes later, too late to administer lifesaving medical care to the Carmelites who are dead at the scene.
COMMENTS:
• In 2003, a Public Safety Team, including City Administrator Rich Guillen, Public Safety Director/Police Chief George Rawson, Ian Watts and Bill Scott, two Carmel Fire Engineers, issued a Report. With respect to the 2-in, 2-out OSHA requirement with CRFA, the Report stated, as follows:
"It should be noted that the current arrangement in operations is a short-term 'step' to try and meet the 2 in/2 out requirement. In order to fully meet this requirement, 4 Carmel personnel would be needed at the scene of these emergencies."
Ergo, the City Council is currently rejecting the conclusion of the City’s Public Safety Team. Why?
• “While Carmel does use the JPA Ambulance personnel as two other ‘on-duty’ firefighters, this is not a complete solution as the ambulance covers a much larger area than the community of Carmel-by-the-Sea. Given this, the ambulance crew is not always available for structure fire staffing. Of the departments reviewed in this study, Carmel has the most ‘fragile’ line firefighter staffing situation and, regardless of consolidation, should strive to add a 3rd full-time firefighter to the engine every day to staff this unit more effectively and at a level comparable to its neighboring fire departments,” according to the Citygate Associates Fire Department Consolidation Feasibility Analysis for the Cities of Monterey, Pacific Grove and Carmel.
Note: Of all the medical calls, 25% are calls which take CRFA away from Carmel-by-the-Sea, according to the Carmel Professional Firefighters.
• Minutes Matter! The Carmel Professional Firefighters know that minutes can mean the difference between life and death; that is, the difference between having a paramedic on board the Fire Engine to immediately administer critical emergency medical aid and emergency personnel arriving too late several minutes later. Even City Council Member Gerard Rose recognized that the difference between 3 minutes and 8 minutes can mean the difference between life and death. With a paramedic as the third person on the Carmel Fire Engine, critical emergency medical aid can be administrated within 3 minutes. Whereas, without a paramedic on board, once emergency medical aid arrives at the scene in 10 to 12 minutes, the victims of a structural fire may be deceased.
• In advocating for a paramedic as the third person on the Carmel Fire Engine, the Carmel Professional Firefighters are concerned about the health, safety and welfare of Carmelites. Contrary to the Carmel Professional Firefighters however, the City Council, in their rejection of the recommendation of the Citygate Report, their rejection of the professional judgment of the Carmel Firefighters and their failure to budget for the paramedic position, is unnecessarily jeopardizing and compromising the lives of every single Carmelite.
• A city administrator worthy of his position does not tell the Carmel Professional Firefighters he is for consolidation and then sign his name to a taxpayer funded advertisement undermining the Carmel Professional Firefighters. To wit, a city administrator having a private opinion in sync with the Carmel Professional Firefighters, yet a public opinion out of sync with the Carmel Professional Firefighters and a City Council of an opinion contrary to the privately held opinion of the city administrator and the Carmel Professional Firefighters position, is another example of poor, dysfunction government in the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea.
• The Solution: Since the principle duty and responsibility of the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea is the health, safety and welfare of Carmelites, it is incumbent on the City Council to budget taxpayer dollars towards the funding of CRFA and a paramedic as a third person on the Carmel Fire Engine, at a minimum. Only then will citizens have confidence that the City Council, City Administrator, CRFA personnel and Carmel Professional Firefighters are all acting together in the best interests of all Carmelites!
5 comments:
It must be kept in mind that this City Council like previous city councils led by Sue McCloud over the past eight plus years puts greatly decreasing both the size of government and fiscal outlay at the top of its agenda. With greater income it is spending less. Not even public safety is important enough for the City Council to spend money. Money it has but prefers to put into Carmel's already excessive reserves.
There is no doubt that having less than four firefighters on a truck with at least one a paramedic is vital to public safety in Carmel. It's the minimum accepted standard across the nation. Why do Carmel businesses and residents have to put up with less than the minimum level of safety?
To repeat what others have already said, we have a city administrator, who was rejected by both Seaside and Monterey but is paid far more than the much more competent city administrators now running those cities on a day to day basis. Guillen's only plus is for Sue McCloud because he allows her to micromanage (badly) the running of our city. Guillen pretends he's making the decisions that the Mayor is really making for him even though it isn't in her job description.
This City Council is ready to plunk millions of dollars down to renovate the Forest Theater for its users and patrons while we citizens beg and scrape just to get decent safety protection with a fully staffed fire department.
If any of you missed the special May 20 council meeting, which is probably most of you, you should watch the podcast available on the city's website. See where the council is putting their priorities and our money to benefit a few.
Our incompetent City Administrator is further decemating the city staff by eliminating such positions as Community Services Director (held by Christie Miller who is soon leaving), Planning Services, Human Resources Manager and Information Systems/Network Manager (both to be contracted out), and Executive Assistant (long held by Sandy Farrell). By the way, Sandy apparently had to hire an attorney to negotiate a fair departure (just as Brian Donoghue and Gred D'Ambrosio had done.) RG is going to add a Forest Beach and Public Works Services Director, Planning & Building Services Director and a Finance Specialist. Where does all of this juggling leave Mike Branson and Steve MacInchak (sp?)
We should hold the coucil's feet to the fire until they provide us with better fire protection in the form of an appropriate and fully staffed fire department. Douse your appathy and voice your displeasure to the council. Here we are simply ranting to the choir.
A prologue to Rich Guillen's reshuffling of city staff again . . . May 23, 2008 issue of Pine Cone, page 3 further explains the cuts and changes. Yup, good bye to Steven McInchak, Sandy Farrell, Jane Miller, Christie Miller, and even Brian Roseth.
Unfortunately we are still stuck with the two we would really like to get rid of . . . the incompetent, in-over-his-head, and overpaid Rich Guillen and the vengeful micromanaging bureaucrat Sue McCloud.
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