Paramedic engines begin fire-EMS consolidation
Polk County Fire Services welcomed its first fire-paramedics Monday when Engine 30 rang in for the shift at the joint rescue station on County Road 54.

The Advanced Life Support engine is a stopgap and a life-saver for critically ill or injured patients especially when the station's ALS ambulance is on another call, Deputy Fire Chief Michael Linkins said. Two county-accredited firefighter-paramedics will staff the fire pumper and respond on serious calls.

The engine paramedics will respond to fires and routine details when not on a medical emergency. They will begin standard emergency room-level care upon reaching an accident or illness ahead of the ambulance, Linkins said.

"This is really a win-win for everyone concerned," he said. "Engines are currently responding to serious medical emergencies. Now the crews can do more."

The ALS engine is far cheaper than adding new ambulance stations at $460,000 initially and $300,000 for subsequent years, Linkins said. Bumping firefighter-emergency medical technicians to paramedics and equipping them with ALS drugs and equipment costs about $25,000 annually, he said.

Newly-carded fire department paramedics receive 30 cents an hour more for their rating and $2 an hour more when actually assigned to an ALS engine. The new fire service position boosts a firefighter's salary by about $7,000 annually in line with newly increased paramedic salaries, Linkins said.

Firefighter-paramedics operate under medical protocols approved by EMS Medical Director Dr. Greg White. Polk County EMS will review medical calls attended by firefighter-paramedics.

The second paramedic engine is scheduled to roll into Station 26 at Sun Air later this year. ALS engines will initially appear in fringe areas of East Polk County including Poinciana and Indian Lake Estates before moving into the county at a rate of one to two ALS engines per year. Lakeland also plans to designate paramedic fire engines shortly.

The practice is common in large cities including Tampa and New York.

"The ALS engine is one more step toward consolidating fire services with emergency medical services," Public Safety Director Larry Alexander said. "We're trying to do it in an orderly fashion."

County officials earlier this year combined the fire department and EMS supply departments. Now the joint detachment resupplies both fire and ambulance. Totally merging fire and EMS is several years off, Alexander said.

Polk County EMS Operations Director Doug Gieger says the ALS pumper provides a means to an ends. More fire stations exist than ambulance stations. It's likely a paramedic engine is closer to an emergency than an ambulance, he said.

In fact, Polk County EMS paid to bridge firefighter EMTs to paramedic and supplied the upper-level defibrillators and drugs. Fire service fees can only be spent on basic first-aid equipment, Linkins said.

"All we want to do is get more paramedics on scene faster," Gieger said. "There are no turf wars involved. No one will have a problem.