Phoenix firefighters union requests more staff, say it’s necessary
Apr 24, 2018, 4:00 AM | Updated: 9:53 am
(Facebook/Phoenix Fire Department)
(Facebook/Phoenix Fire Department)
PHOENIX – Yes, they are really necessary.
That’s what a local Phoenix firefighters union says about its request for 138 more Phoenix firefighters.
Captain Bryan Willingham is the local’s vice-president. He said the union understands no one likes paying more money for anything.
However, 138 new firefighters would really help.
“We provide our own ambulances. On those ambulances, we have firefighters, one paramedic, and one EMT – on every one of those units,” he said. “There’s 138 of them. Those units – those apparatus in our system – cannot provide a primary response; they’re there for transport only.”
Willingham said the Phoenix Fire Department has always been shorthanded, yet efficient.
However, the growing population cannot be ignored any longer – especially because most of the service calls are medical.
“When an individual gets hurt – especially traumatic injury – for survivability, (hospitals) recommend you get them to a hospital in less than an hour,” he said. “That can become problematic if you’re on the outskirts of Ahwatukee – way in the Foothills – and you don’t have an ambulance available to transport that individual.
“Five-minute response, the reason that’s the recommended response is because brain death occurs in 6 minutes. Let’s say you have a heart attack or a stroke, if either one of those organs isn’t supplied with an adequate amount of oxygen, what they call tissue necrosis, or death to the tissue starts occurring in 6 minutes.”
The Phoenix Fire Department said it has 1,641 personnel right now.
Willingham said that’s a bit misleading.
“Here’s what we have working in the field,” he said. “We have 423 bodies every single day that we put in the seats. Twelve-hundred-69 over a three-day period. We have 1,269 people in the system that serve the community over a three-day period.
“So that’s already running short if you look at the standard.”
The national standard is one firefighter for every 1,000 persons in a community.
“We have 40-hour staff positions, we have to account for industrial injuries, people who have illnesses or what have you, light duty positions,” Willingham said. “Those individuals hold down positions on the job too.
“They teach at our Emergency Medical Services Training Division; recruit training officers that work at the Academy; we have investigators, inspectors. We have a lot of people that work on this fire department things other than be a firefighter in the field.”
