Future Fireman

As much as I am for getting into Fire-EMS, the IAFF is in it for the wrong reasons.
Yes, that will piss some union members off, but hear me out.
The IAFF is concerned about 1 primary thing: Keeping or expanding their union base and bringing more benefits to their members. Their point is that NFPA standards are already place stations in places for quick response times.
However, the result of this Fire based EMS most often, is FORCED ALS, since it seems that every department wants to proudly promote that they provide EMS at the Paramedic level by putting "PARAMEDIC" on the side of the engine. (Who needs those silly basics anyways?)
Do we need a paramedic on every fire truck like they have in abundance out in California and in Florida and in various parts of the rest of the country?
If your ambulance is coming just as quickly, no, you don't. Maybe if it's 30 minutes out. But it is a rather expensive WANT rather than a genuine need.
All FD provided ALS first response does is make your service more expensive to provide and give uber-redundency in the duplication of services.
Now, if you think I have a vendetta against Fire Based EMS or the IAFF you're wrong. I was an explorer for 4 years with a FD that did transporting EMS, and I love both sides. But everyone is quick to put PARAMEDIC on the side of the engine when they don't need to.
So, what am I getting at? If the FD operates at the ALS first response level, that usually makes for alot of forced medics (IIRC, Dallas is setup this way. You MUST be a medic to get hired or even get promoted.) What does this lead to? A downgrade in patient care. All these medics care about is getting a FF job or getting promoted. They don't give a crap about the patients they treat. All they care about is going to fires.
Personally, I am a big fan of ALS transporting ambulances and BLS engines & other first responders.
I'm no expert in Fire or EMS, and I don't claim to be, but I'm less than thrilled about why most FDs get into EMS (the typical padding their call volume & ensuring funds/staffing - which is what NFPA 1710 & 1720 [for VFDs] are for.)
I'm sorry if I pissed anyone off, but as a EMS newbie that is well versed in EMS news, it ticks me off that some agencies out there are providing EMS for the wrong reasons. I'm sure I'll get some angry rebuttals from this, but I'm just gonna shut up from here on out.

The tornadoes were all from one or two cells out of all of the severe thunderstorms that came through yesterday. The cell for the most part basically followed the path of the Mass Pike.
It went all the way from Westfield & Greater Springfield area to finishing off in Millbury. Inbetween those two areas, there are at least a dozen towns that have sustained damage.
The town of Southbridge got hit hard, and they actually had the tornado cross the I-84/I-90 Toll Plaza. Rt. 20 in that town is also impassible, although they are starting to finally clear away most of the damage. Oxford, 2 towns south of Worcester, got hit hard. Millbury, getting the tail end, just got the finishing touches of the storm. From my friends that are MFD's explorer post, they've had only a handful of storm related calls, which, considering the NWS was tracking a tornado through Millbury, is damn good.
A friend from another forum I'm on, caught the following on the Webster Rescue online live feed: "Didn't catch the town, 'Roof is off Police HQ & EOC'"
From a friend that's still on an ambulance task force (that got mobilized, around 17:30 yesterday) in Brimfield, he says that the area is basically destroyed.
Springfield Fire & Police issued an all-staff recall yesterday. Unsure if that's still in effect.
While a fire task force was responding to Palmer, another town hit hard, Worcester's Engine 16 was either on the Mass Pike or US 20, and had the tornado right in front of them while they were responding as part of the task force.
Another friend, who's on a fire task force that came up from Connecticut, he said last night to the effect that the statement "It's pretty bad" is the understatement of the year.
The Massachusetts FEMA USAR Task Force 1 has been mobilized and set up in Springfield.
State of Emergency has been declared by the governor.
For those that want to listen in to the scanners about the latest, here's 2 links to online scanner feeds.
Webster Rescue Feed: www.websterrescue.com/live/shtml
Hampden County Fire/PD feed: Radio Reference feed
Mike

The tornadoes were all from one or two cells out of all of the severe thunderstorms that came through yesterday. The cell for the most part basically followed the path of the Mass Pike.
It went all the way from Westfield & Greater Springfield area to finishing off in Millbury. Inbetween those two areas, there are at least a dozen towns that have sustained damage.
The town of Southbridge got hit hard, and they actually had the tornado cross the I-84/I-90 Toll Plaza. Rt. 20 in that town is also impassible, although they are starting to finally clear away most of the damage. Oxford, 2 towns south of Worcester, got hit hard. Millbury, getting the tail end, just got the finishing touches of the storm. From my friends that are MFD's explorer post, they've had only a handful of storm related calls, which, considering the NWS was tracking a tornado through Millbury, is damn good.
A friend from another forum I'm on, caught the following on the Webster Rescue online live feed: "Didn't catch the town, 'Roof is off Police HQ & EOC'"
From a friend that's still on an ambulance task force (that got mobilized, around 17:30 yesterday) in Brimfield, he says that the area is basically destroyed.
Springfield Fire & Police issued an all-staff recall yesterday. Unsure if that's still in effect.
While a fire task force was responding to Palmer, another town hit hard, Worcester's Engine 16 was either on the Mass Pike or US 20, and had the tornado right in front of them while they were responding as part of the task force.
Another friend, who's on a fire task force that came up from Connecticut, he said last night to the effect that the statement "It's pretty bad" is the understatement of the year.
The Massachusetts FEMA USAR Task Force 1 has been mobilized and set up in Springfield.
State of Emergency has been declared by the governor.
For those that want to listen in to the scanners about the latest, here's 2 links to online scanner feeds.
Webster Rescue Feed: www.websterrescue.com/live/shtml
Hampden County Fire/PD feed: Radio Reference feed
Mike