Why are firefighters also the paramedics in the U.S.?
While all of those are great reasons (accept for the cheap part)…here’s a huge reason… In most places today, there aren’t a huge demand for firefighters. About 75% of calls today are EMS calls, including MVC’s. So, if we just had firefighters, we would be paying a bunch of guys to sit there and do nothing. This isn’t being cheap, it’s cost efficient. Money can be put elsewhere to better provide the community. And yes, firefighters are often time first responders. Even in major cities, the trend is becoming having FF’s who are at least EMT-B’s. There are a few departments, though, that I know of that actually have dedicated FF’s and dedicated Paramedics who do not have to be cross trained. These are few and far between. There are dedicated ambulance services all over the place, but they’re generally not municipal, they’re privately owned. The department I work for has an ambulance company provide it’s EMS, but us FF’s work side by side with the “contract” medics. If an EMS call come
