February 19, 2009 - Professional FirefightersI

was invited to speak to the Columbia Professional Firefighters - Local 1055 this morning. What a great group of folks sitting on the board for the Firefighters. I was given an opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback on a variety of issues.

I learned that they are eagerly working toward helping the Columbia firefighting community to become Advanced Life Support (ALS) certified. In a nutshell this would allow firefighters, many of whom are already trained as EMT's to begin life-saving activities prior to an ambulance arriving on scene. There are more fire trucks and staff in the city compared to ambulances, so it only makes sense that they be able to start IV's and perform other more advanced treatments when time is working against an injury victim. Sort of seems like a no-brainer to me, given that it truly could mean the difference between life and death. I have assured them that I would be supportive of this if elected to council.

We discussed the fire protection territorial agreement, a written document up for renewal and currently being debated, between the Boone County Fire Protection District and their Columbia counterparts. Essentially, as the city began to grow rapidly, the likelihood that someone on the outer limits of the city could be too far away from City provided services increased. Over the past 15 years, under the previous agreement, many pockets were created in areas that had previously been county service areas, but now found themselves located inside the city limits. Due to a grandfather clause, these areas would remain BCFPD responsiblity. Probem is a city-tax payer living inside the city limits wanted to know they had a city provided service since they were paying for it.

A new agreement in place appears to be addressing this issue and residents living in these pockets will now have the best of both worlds. The City of Columbia will be the primary provider, but the BCFPD will be backup or could even wind up there first depending on the situation.

We discussed a bit about the inordinately high number of non-fire calls they received last year. Of just over 9,000 calls, 2/3 of them were NOT fire-related! Imagine well over 6,000 times last year, those crews had to load up and drive out a big truck to respond to something non-fire related. It is my thought that if the money and space become available, the Council should look at securing a more efficient and effective vehicle for responding to these calls.