SFD and more cool stuff

And medical call wise, advanced calls in our town (ie chest pain, trouble breathing, trauma) are handled by Overlook Hospital Paramedics. There are no Paramedics on our FD or any Engine company in NJ; Our FF's, medically and fire wise, are trained to the same mandated levels as our local volunteer FD's in our neighboring area; To FF 1 and Basic EMT level (approx 3 months of training compared to 2 years for Paramedic). So, that being said, the serious calls are already being handled by Overlook Paramedics, transport to the hospital handled by our First Aid Squad, and placing by defibrillators on our police cars you have a system that covers the need in our town in a safe and smart way. Especially since our PD are in a position to respond the fastest of any other service as they are on the road around the clock. The beauty of this outline is the pieces of the puzzle are already in place. Cost effective and safe, isn't that what businesses do? Families? Its called EFFICIENCY and utilizing the system we have to its best performance. If there were fires in our neighboring towns covered by a volunteer based FD and people were forced to jump out of the windows of burning buildings due to a volunteer response, don't you think it would be in the news? How and why are towns that are covered by ALL volunteer departments not burning to the ground? Because, like Springfield the fire load is minimal. Detection is early and there are no under-served areas where the population is living in conditions like we see in our Urban areas. For years the SFD was "short staffed" and there was not one FF or civilian death or major injury (we lost a cat which is nothing to take lightly however)...Why, because our town does not have many fires...its just how it is and Thank God!