GREENE – Fire Chief Joe Brown announced at a hearing Monday night that the fire and rescue squad needs help streamlining responses to life-threatening situations from 911 calls.
Currently, of the six members of the fire and rescue team, only two are in town during the working hours of the week. Brown said this has resulted in numerous situations in which the emergency medical technicians could not respond.
Under the current contract, regardless of fire and rescue’s availability, United Ambulance responds to all 911 calls.
“We don’t pick and choose which calls we answer,” Assistant Chief Bruce Tufts said. “We just can’t run the amount of runs we are doing with six people.”
Brown asked to have the hearing so that the people of Greene would understand where the department is coming from and to put all rumors to rest that the town is trying to phase out the EMT service.
What was proposed before the townspeople by the chief is to make United Ambulance the primary contact for all 911 calls and move the Greene Fire and Rescue to a secondary contact, acting as backup to situations when needed.
In the event of a person down, fire or accident, the fire and rescue team would be contacted immediately and respond when they can.
Longtime volunteer EMT Carol Harris said she is not pleased with becoming a secondary contact but understands the reasoning. “I do however, want traumas, heart attacks, strokes and chest pains called into our EMTs,” she said.
The fire chief and EMTs are working on a list of emergency situations that should be called out to both United Ambulance and the fire and rescue team by the county sheriff’s dispatch.
“We are not asking anyone to quit,” Brown said. “We are just looking at what is best for citizens.”
Making United Ambulance a primary contact will not be an additional cost to the town but the chief noted that most calls to United Ambulance range around $1,000 to the resident’s insurance company and as high as $4,000 for accidents.
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