NEAFC 31st Annual Conference.pdf - New England Association of ...

NEW ENGLAND ASSOCIATION OF FIRE CHIEFS
hundred runs, so it would seem that .the rescue service is going to be built up in the
fire service. It is called upon for every practical sickness and medical aid.
F’ven the &)ctors call for oxygen, so actually the rescue service is building itself up
into an ambulance service. Ninety-five per cent of all the .runs that the rescue companies
make has a’bsolutely nothing to do with the fire service, but it is a public service
and it does a tremen, dous good in public relations for the fire department. I don’t know
of anything that is building up ’better public relations than the ambulance.
CHAIRMAN WOOLLEY: Chief Marshall i~troduces another idea. In order to arrive
at a clear definition of this problem we mu~.t consider the small-town fire services, as
well as those of the big cities. The question is: where does ambulance services and
rescue .services begin and end? Many cities like to have rescue units d~ ambulance work.
Many other .chiefs claim if their emerg~t~cy .or rescue unit attempts to do duty as an
am’bulance, they lose all its utility as a rescue unit which it would have when located
on the fire ground.
Also, as the Chief has emphasized so well: the question of public relations and of
building goodwill for us is a vital one. Now, since the Panel .doesn’t want to discuss
this at too great length, is there anyone on the floor with a thought? In speaking from
the fl,oor, I would like to, offer this thought: Stand up to be seen; speak up to be heard,
and sit dgown to be remembered.
CHIEF HUGH L. F.AMES, Reading: In my town I have been approached several
times to have the fire department take over the ambulance. I tell them we will take it
over if we are provided with men. I know some departmeents that render ambulance
service and cram their manpower to the extent that, should anything serious happen in
the fire-fighting line, they would be out of luck. We must have the men.if we are gc.ing
to render am’bulance service.
CHIEF JOSElbH O. MOWR¥, Attleboro: We took over the ambulance service for
the hospital two years ago, and it has ,built ,our public prestige 100 per cent. We did
not receive the man-power; we are doing that at thte expense of putting a piece of apparatus
.out ,o,f service at times, but you can always put in the multiple alarm and call
in the off-shift.
.CHIEF WALTER R, MURRAY, Weymoouth, Massachusetts: The first of this year
I happenedl to be a member Of a committee in our town to weigh whether the town
should accept as a gift an ambulance. During the war the town raised funds for a
veterans’ home-coming committee. It seems they had quite some difficulty in, finding a
proper metho,d of spending this, so the money laid there.
Last year they attempted to take definite steps to do something with this money,
and it was turned over to the veteran organizations. They came up with the thought
they wouldl like to donate an ambulan, ce to the town. The town then formed a committee-of
which I was .one--to make a stud,y so that the town meeting could take
definite action. We put quite some study into it, but we did not make any recommendations.
We came up with the pros and cons of the matter and then presented it in that
way ’before the town.
The ambulance would, of course, coat the town nothing, but its actual cost would be
just short of $10,000. However, the donors of the am,bulance wanted it manned 24
hours a. day--for which, we felt, there should be at least two men on duty at all times.
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