County Is Reviving Plan to Train Firefighters as Paramedics

County fire officials have revived a long-shelved plan to train firefighters as paramedics who could provide advanced medical treatment at emergency scenes.

Ventura County Fire Chief Bob Roper is spearheading the fledgling effort and hopes to present a feasibility study to the Board of Supervisors early next year. Participating in the study is the county’s Emergency Medical Services Agency, the firefighters’ union and American Medical Response--the county’s largest private ambulance company.

“The whole thing is a noncompetitive public-private partnership,” Roper said Tuesday. “As I’m dealing with the management of an ambulance company, my own labor union and the Board of Supervisors, I’m trying to keep everyone informed every step of the way to eliminate the rumors out in the field and make sure nobody feels threatened. . . . There are no losers in this anywhere. The winner should be the public.”

In concept, the plan would entail training one person on each of Ventura County’s 33 engine companies as a paramedic, Roper said. The plan mimics one in place in the city of Ventura.

Most of the county’s 390 firefighters are trained as emergency medical technicians who can provide basic life support, such as supplying oxygen or performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Paramedics, on the other hand, may dispense medication and perform more advanced techniques.

Many details of the plan have yet to be formulated: the number of firefighters who would need paramedic training or recertification, the cost of providing that training and maintenance, and the revenue sources for the program, for starters.

“One thing the fire district cannot do is add a new level of service . . . without adequate funds to make sure we can continue,” said Roper, whose crews serve two-thirds of the county’s residents.

For years, many county firefighters and residents have lobbied for firefighters to be trained as paramedics, arguing that the move could cut response times to car crashes and shootings and could give victims better and faster medical care.

Private ambulance companies, however, have bristled at the suggestion that their response times aren’t adequate, pointing out that they are meeting the county requirement of responding within 10 minutes to 90% of their calls.

This time around, the Ventura County Professional Firefighters Assn. and American Medical Response officials have positive words for the proposal.

Carroll Hoiness, president of the firefighters’ union, said his members back the proposal, which may entail bonuses or pay raises for firefighters trained as paramedics.

“We’ve been trying to get this since 1977,” Hoiness said. “We’re absolutely in favor of it. Our whole job is to protect the citizens and give them the best we can.”

American Medical Response’s local operations manager, Brian Ranger, also is supportive, even though some of the 100 paramedics he oversees worry that the plan might put them out of work.

“We’re sure interested in pursuing it,” he said. “It’s going to take a lot of fact-finding and discussions before any consensus is reached. . . . But the way I’ve seen it posed thus far, it wouldn’t be a threat.”

Thousand Oaks Councilman Andy Fox, a captain with the Los Angeles Fire Department, has strongly advocated the plan.

“This would mean faster response times to life-threatening medical emergencies where advanced life support is needed, such as a heart attack,” said Fox, who has encouraged Roper to pursue the plan. “The addition of firefighters trained as paramedics will clearly save lives because it will reduce response times.”