Riding the bus...

If there is one thing I absolutely despise, its firefighters complaining about running EMS. Now, I'm a firefighter and an EMT-B, so I see both sides of the "fence". Around here, in order to get a job as firefighter, you need to get your EMT. Plain and simple, no ifs, ands or buts about it. About a year ago, the local paid dept. was hiring, and low and behold, the people on my dept didn't qualify, because they didn't have their EMT. That's just the way it is now a days. In the systems where EMS is run by Fire, you always seem to get those people who constantly complain about having to ride the ambo. Well, the problem is, thats just they way the fireservice is these days. Saying "I don't like running ambulance calls" is like saying "I don't want to go to MVCs" 40 years ago in NJ, when the Rescue Squad handeld everything that was not a fire, and the fire department handeld none of it. The fire service is evolving, and certain firefighters seem to have a problem with it. Well, there are other jobs out there. These people are the modern incarnations of the HAZMAT haters of the 70's and 80's or the public education pudits. They are stuck in 1910. What do you think people said when FDNY started Rescue One about 100 years ago? I bet they complained "We are the fire department, we dont do that stuff", well you'd be hard pressed to find a large fire department that doesn't have a rescue truck (pittsburg doesnt count). Back to the "fence" comment eariler. That fence is gone. It started getting torn down when the first episode of Emergency premeird. There was a reason why doctors accross the county chose the Fire Department to become paramedics. It was a complement back then, and we should take it as such now. We need to think of the fire service as a buisness, we need to keep updating our products for tomorrow, or else the buisness fails. If you want to be running one engine with two guys on it, go a head, keep whining about running EMS, and we will see where it gets you....