Detroit's firefighters will be trained as medical first responders — a move aimed at decreasing response times and helping the city's EMS unit, officials said, Gina Damron reports in the Free Press.
The city's average response time for EMS is now about 12 minutes and 40 seconds, according to city officials.
"Our EMS unit needs our assistance, but more than that, the people of the city of Detroit need our assistance," Executive Fire Commissioner Edsel Jenkins said during a graduation ceremony for more than 60 new firefighters last week. "There should be no citizen in this city that should have to wait more than six minutes for an ambulance or for some emergency medical care to reach them to save their lives, to save the life of a loved one."
In an interview with the Free Press, Jenkins said the goal is to decrease EMS response time to eight minutes by Jan. 1.
Firefighters in other big cities, such as New York, Chicago and Toronto, have responded to EMS calls for years. The firefighters' union in Detroit previously resisted turning its members into medical first responders, arguing that they were busier than their cohorts nationally responding to fire calls.
Another concept the Detroit Fire Fighters Association fought for decades -- merit-based promotions -- will take effect next year. For more than a century, promotions in the DFD have been based solely on seniority.
