lesleyk, very good points. I tried to be delicate when posting the topic. I don't want to investigate the Fire Department's operating budget because I know that Jerry does a wonderful job. I trust that he is doing his job and running that department the best he can. He took that department and made it 10 times more professional. He also took advantage of our geographical location for equipment paid for with federal grants rather than spend local budget money.

You are probably right about the other topics where the city is spending money. I don't have the knowledge on those topics mentioned (maybe a seperate post should be started for that). I just know that spending the amount of money we do for 2.5 fire calls a month is crazy. So, I think that that money is easier justified in our ageing community if the full-timers become EMT certified and take ambulance runs as well. If that happened, I think this topic would go away.

Ripper, I'm sure it takes a lot of maintenance to keep those fire trucks, emergency equipment, and the building itself maintained. That equipment is relied upon for emergencies to save our lives. I'm sure the firefighters do plenty in their down time...but maybe that stuff could be done in their down time in-between ambulance runs.

I'm just trying to be fair here to justify the funds. The last thing I want is more people to lose their jobs in this town.

Jerry Jensen provided The Journal the following information on the issue. He was instructed by Mayor Shawn Mason not to reply directly to the questions posed on our Web site.

Yes, when you look at the Fire Department from the outside, I can certainly understand why you have your concerns about staffing.

We do have 30 firefighters and 16 EMT’s and one valuable Paramedic, with 4 full time Firefighter Engineers that work at the station 24/7 (someone at the station at all times). Last year was an excellent year for the fire department with 31 total fire calls, which is the best year that we have ever had for fires. With that we also had 842 ambulance calls that we transported patients, and that has been the worst year as far as number of transfers, so your numbers are right for 2009.

The fire department budget pays for 2 of the full time engineers, and the ambulance budget pays for the other two full time engineers.

I’m really not sure what to say about your little slam of my department about the save the basement vs. save a life, if you think for one second that all we do is save the basement and put a lower priority on saving a life, you really don’t have any understanding of emergency services.

Our firefighter Engineers are required to be EMT’s, and for good reason, they are very active on the ambulance as well. Yes, we need more Paramedics, and someday hopefully we will have more than one, so we can give the citizens in our community the service they deserve.

I have looked many times at how would could manage our department without the firefighter engineers, since that is always a concern of concerned citizens such as yourself. I think they are a valuable asset to our community, when you talk about other communities north of Duluth, who do it the way we do, your right.

Virginia has at least 20 full time Firefighter/Paramedics who cover both the fire and ambulance calls.

Hibbing has at least 20 full time Firefighter/Paramedics who cover both the fire and ambulance calls,

and it is the same in Clouquet. (Which I have all the respect in world for these three departments)

They respond to fires with 4 to 6 firefighters to a fire, and then they have support from the communities around them to provide mutual aid (back up).

When we have a fire, we have a Firefighter Engineer at the station, which pages the remaining firefighters, and is in the apparatus on the way to a fire within a minute. The rest of the volunteer respond to the location of the incident, approximately 23, the off duty Firefighter Engineers respond to the station to man the station and respond with additional apparatuses. They also respond the on call ambulance crew to respond for medical support for both citizens and firefighters.

The Ambulance service does have a paramedic that works 8 am to 4 pm Monday thru Friday, and she will respond to any call she hears, that she feels her skills are needed.

I really hope one day we will be able to have more paramedics than just one, having a paramedic does make a difference to the care of our patients. I’m currently responding on calls during the day if I’m not busy with something else, and normally I will find a way to get away to help, because that does mean getting out the door in less than a minute, which does make a difference to the patient.

Now if you were to ask any of the EMT’s how they would feel in not having the Firefighter Engineer at the station when a call comes to the station, they would quickly inform you that our engineers are a must to make our ambulance successful.

When we receive a call, they have the ambulance out of the garage and instructions for getting to the incident as quick as possible.

The engineers monitor all aspects of the call to insure they arrive at the scene, how long they are there, and if they need more help, and to also be ready to dispatch another call.

The Firefighter Engineers are very busy at the station most of the time, they have stacks of check lists that they have to complete, daily, weekly and monthly.

I’m very proud of the staff we have at the station, both fire and ambulance, and because of our responsibilities in our community and our geographic location, we have the right kind of department, having a combination department.

As far as the ambulance goes, I will continue to work with a task force that has been trying very hard to establish an ALS (Advance Life Support (paramedics)) service for our community.

I would love to have you stop at the station and observe the duties of the Firefighter Engineer, and if you have ideas, that you think would be more efficient or less expensive for our community, I’m always open to suggestions.

I know this just touches the duties of the Firefighter Engineers, but I hope it opens up a few of the issues that are not normally thought of.

Jerry Jensen
Fire Chief/Ambulance Director
600 4th Street
International Falls, MN 56649