Revised staffing plan for Arlington MA FD
Arlington Mass is one of the richest towns on Gawds Green Earth. But
ambulance and paramedic response times of 15 and 20 minutes are
becoming more and more regular as the number of available ambulances
and medics are overwhelmed by multiple simultaneous calls.
Presently Arl FD has 15 people on duty per shift. They are all
firefighter/EMTs. They operate 3 engines, 1 ladder, 1 ambulance, and 1
chefs car. Arl FD presently operates from 3 stations that were rebuilt
in the last 10 years. Backup EMS service is provided by a local
private ambulance service (Armstrong) that typically dedicates 1 SUV
with 2 paramedics to Arlington. Armstrong also has a fleet of
approximately 70 BLS ambulances.
Arlington FD could change their staffing to - 2 quints with 3 people
each - plus 4 ambulances with 2 people each - plus 1 Chief car. That
maintains the 15 people per shift.
If just 1 unit is available to cover the 5 square mile Town, the best
central location is at the High School. If 2 units are available - the
2 best locations are at Arlington Center; and at the intersection of
Mass Ave at Forest St. Unfortunately - just Arlington Center has a
fire station.
The three fire stations have a total of 10 bays - 6 in Arlington
Center - 3 at Highland Station - 1 at Park Circle. Lets say that we
put ...... I am changing the plan as I write this LOL ........
Lets put 1 quint and 1 ambulance in the 1 bay at Park Circle - staff
the 2 vehicles with 3 people - put the ambulance in front - put the
quint in back. Run some calls with both vehicles - run some calls with
just the ambulance. Or you could ave a pumper ambulance at this
station. But use it for ems transport as a last resort.
At Highland Station - lets fill up the 3 bays with maybe 1 or 2 quints
- and maybe 2 or 4 ambulances. The bays might be long enough to take 2
ambulances each.
At Arlington Center - with 6 bays only 1 quint can fit inside the
building at a time - but you could fill the 5 other bays with pumpers
or ambulances.
The maximum number of quints would be 5 - the maximum number of
pumpers would be 10 or 11 - the maximum number of ambulances would be
maybe 14.
As you can see - there are multiple options here. Lets start with 1
quint per station. Then add 1 ambulance per station. This would leave
room for either a maximum of 8 ambulances or a maximum of 5 pumpers.
And this is even before contemplating mini stations for quints or
other rigs around town. If you go back thru old FD annual reports you
will see mention of proposed fire stations at Hills Hill, Poets
Corner, and Lake St at Mass Ave.
Other options could include - joint funding of ambulances in adjoining
communities at West Medford, Teele Square in Somervile, Belmont
Center, and West Winchester fire stations.,
We need to think more deeply about pumper/ambulances. The closest
hospitals are approx 3 miles away in dense urban areas. So they might
not fly. But it is another option to think about.
PSOs and oncall / pager equipped staff is another thing to think about as well.
Bottom line - fires are way down - EMS calls are probably way up.