Is MOFD necessarily the best provider of emergency services?
We’re not taking issue with the competency of Con Fire or AMR, but we are committed to maintaining the quick response time and level of experience of our firefighters and paramedics. Today’s average response time of five minutes is significantly shorter than it was before MOFD was formed. Retaining four firefighter/paramedics on staff instead of replacing them with AMR staff is an important part of maintaining that response time. If you replace four firefighter/paramedics every shift with four civilian paramedics/EMTs from AMR, as FAIR proposes, you have four fewer firefighters to aggressively attack a fire. If you also eliminate the Battalion Chief, as FAIR proposes, you would have a 25% reduction in the number of firefighters on duty. Moreover, with the majority of 911 calls in Orinda being for medical emergencies, we believe that our community is best served by paramedics, who receive a significantly higher level of training than EMTs (emergency medical technicians). MOFD responds t
