FossilMedic returns:

Firehouse Magazine has published a National Run Survey for the last 26 years.  This year, Trinidad Engine 10, from the District of Columbia returned to the top position with 7217 responses in 2006.

Cincinnati Engine 5 was one of the first companies to achieve acclaim as the busiest engine company.  While attending the Fire Department Instructor’s Conference in the early 1980’s I decided to visit the Over-the-Rhine fire station.  Engine 5 was operating a 1979 Seagrave with a 54’ squrt.  At that time the EMS division was comprised of three paramedic and three BLS ambulances.  I learned from Engine 5 that the poorer neighborhoods, frustrated by slow police response, would exaggerate the extent of injuries from assaults and robberies.  Engine 5 would arrive within minutes, the police within hours.  The department had a dispatch protocol where non-life threatening calls for ems assistance would get a single engine response.  The firefighter/emts would evaluate the patient and then call for a basic or paramedic ambulance.  I remember reading from a CFD annual report that 26% of the calls for ems assistance were handled by just an engine company.

Steve Hagy photos

It was dark and I was going to walk the mile or so back to the convention center.  One of the firefighters working overtime on FDIC logistics insisted that I get a ride from him.  The community I was going to walk through was the scene of riots in 1967 and 1968 as well as a series of shootings between 1978-1979 that killed four black civilians and four white police officers.

Social-economic conditions have not changed.  An April 2001 police shooting of a black teenager touched off another riot.  The poverty rate approaches 95%, with Over-The-Rhine household median income at $8,600 compared to the city average of $26,774 and the Greater Cincinnati Metropolitan Area income of $54,800.  In 2001, an income below $17,029 is living in poverty.  This link takes you to a September 13, 2001 story about the efforts of Engine 5 firefighter Peter Deane who was reaching out to the Hispanic immigrants in their district:
http://citybeat.com/2001-09-13/cover2.shtml

Communities in poverty generate more fire and ems calls.  Los Angeles City marries a pumper with a truck company, called a light force, in all but its busiest fire station.  The fire station formerly known as “Skid Row,” includes Truck 9, the only stand-alone truck company in the city.  http://www.firestation9skidrow.com/help.html

Along with Engines 9 and 209 as well as paramedic Rescues 9 and 209, Station 9 ranks #1, responding to six first due fire incidents a day.  They also average 17 ALS and 10 BLS first due events every day.  To get a taste of the Big Screen, click to “24 Hours on Skid Row”
http://www.californiaconnected.org/tv/archives/366 .  You should also read Steve Lopez’s October 2005 “Life on the Streets” Los Angeles Times series (free registration required):
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez16oct16,0,5981036.column?coll=la-home-headlines

In the 2004 survey, San Francisco Engine 3 showed up as the busiest engine, with 7899 runs, repeating in 2005 with 8068 responses.  Last October I inadvertently repeated my Cincinnati immersion experience.  I could not get a room at the hotel where the San Francisco Paramedic Association was holding their conference.  I found an affordable hotel that was four blocks away in the theatre district.  I knew I was in the right place when the marquee next to the hotel proclaimed LIVE!  NUDE!  GIRLS!  

I felt profoundly out-of-place walking to the conference, wearing a suit and tie and carrying a computer briefcase.  Some of the buildings were abandoned and, even at sunrise, I could see dozens of homeless sleeping.  This walk allowed me to pass by the quarters of Engine and Truck 3. 

Since that World War II era Christmas picture, the center pole has been removed in the front bay.  Station 3 is a turn of the century, mid-block, fire station that required the tiller to park at an angle in quarters in order to allow the engine to fit in.

In a later commentary I will write about the work done by SFFD Paramedic Captain Niels Tangherlini with the Homeless Outreach and Medical Emergency (H.O.M.E.) team.  I noticed that on every walk I saw one or two SFFD ambulances or rescue captain working with the homeless in the tenderloin district.  It is my understanding that the District of Columbia is looking at the H.O.M.E. team concept to reduce their ambulance transport workload.

For most of the last decade, Washington DC’s “House of Pain” Engine 10 has been the busiest engine in the nation.
  http://www.10engine.com/  Always ranked in the top five for structure fires, about 270 a year, there has been a continual change in the make-up of the runs that contribute to the 7000 annual total.  In each successive year, the number of medical locals increased by a couple of hundred additional responses.  In 1997, 63% of Engine 10’s responses were for medical locals.

Trinidad 10

The last year Engine 10 was ranked number 1 was in 2003, with 6709 responses.  Still responding as a basic life support engine, about 75% of them were medical locals.  You can get a taste of the experience by reading Dave Jamieson’s 2004 Washington City Paper feature:  “Gentlemen, Start Your Engine:  Feeling sick?  Drunk?  Wounded?  Engine 10 has your address.”  Download a .pdf version here:
http://home.gwu.edu/~mikeward/040618_10EngineCITYPAPER.pdf

Three years later, DCFEMS Paramedic Engine Company 10 has 7217 responses, 80% of them are medical locals.  In urban areas, structure fires have not been the most frequent activity.  The challenge is the continuing growth of ems and public health/welfare related requests for assistance.

Dennis Smith worked on the busiest engine company in the world when the south Bronx was burning 30 years ago.  His 1972 book, Report From Engine Co. 82, became a best seller. In a new introduction to the book, Smith points out that only one third of Engine 82’s runs were for structure fires.  A third of the runs were medical and the last third was for everything else (malicious false alarms, investigations, etc.)  Now, it appears a third of the runs are traditional fire service responses and two-thirds are something else.

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