With budget being a main concern lately, why does our city employ so many full-time firefighters (drivers), yet no full-time ambulance service drivers? Don't get me wrong, we all love our firemen. But, we average 2.5 fire calls per month vs 70.1 ambulance calls per month (2009 stats). Save the basement vs save a life.
I don't want to see any of the firefighters lose their jobs, but can't we require them to take EMT or Paramedic classes so they can respond to medicals as well like most fire departments with full-time employees? If not, maybe we should phase out our full-time drivers as they retire.
I don't want to pick on our fire department just because we live in hard times, but I've always felt this way. Who else in the Northland (north of Duluth) does it this way?
Am I looking at this the wrong way? If I'm wrong, someone from the city please comment and set me straight.
