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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

First Responder Service - How Much Does it REALLY Cost?

There are a couple of people in town, including a couple on the Finance Committee, that have jumped up and down and hollered about how much our Fire Department would save is they didn’t provide First Responder Service to our community. Well, we have obtained the actual figures on how much it really cost to provide this service to our town people.

• Cost for fuel for the truck – $921.22
• Overtime for additional coverage - $837.60
• Training, supplies, books, oxygen and licenses - $3,197.16

That’s a grand total of $4,955.98.

It cost less than $5,000 for our Fire Department to provide First Responder Service to the injured and sick members of our community. Often times our Firemen arrived on scene faster than the ambulance crew, providing emergency first aid and medical care. The assistance they provided also allowed our paramedics to fully concentrate on providing medical care to their patients and moved them to the hospital quicker. This seems like a pretty nice benefit for our town for a relatively small cost. It leaves us wondering what all the fuss was really about.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't forget wear and tear on the equipment, services for the extra mileage put on the truck, tires, etc... I agree with the assistance, but why does a fire truck have to respond when there is no need for the truck? Why not have a response vehicle with the truck driver back at the station.?There is definately arguement for both sides.

Anonymous said...

There is always two sides to every story. Thank you RFP and RVFP for giving this town an opportunity to hear both sides.

Anonymous said...

One must not forget that the fire departments priority is fire protection services in town, that is why they go with a fire truck. How would they look if they where out on a ems call and a fire call came in and they where across the street from it but didn’t have a truck?

Anonymous said...

Oh, the what if game, what if they were on one side of the town with their fire truck and a fire started on the other side of the town. It would take twice as long for the fire truck to get to this fire and twice as much damage would occur, maybe spreading or creating more fires. What if....

Anonymous said...

You are incorrect, it is not the what if game, it is the cold hard truth! If the fire department is out doing medical things and a fire comes in they need to be able to deal with it as quickly and efficiently as possible, and that does not include going BACK to the station for a fire truck. It’s just so simple to understand , maybe the people having a hard time with it are the ones that will never understand AKA Citizens Against Virtually Everything!