This is off-topic, but hits home. My uncle is a medic, and firefighters are not dispatched to all calls related to medical emergencies. Their union boss would like them to be, though. I have nothing against firefighters (I am related to a few) but paramedics specialize in responding to emergency calls. That is literally all that they are trained to do. While firefighters do receive first aid training, it is more limited than what a paramedic receives. Firefighters should only be providing medical intervention if a paramedic is unavailable to, or if they cannot respond in time. Those issues can be easily solved by better funding for EMS, which has been woefully underfunded for years in comparison to the fire service.

AoD, it is pretty funny that you posted that article, as today, the OPFFA laid out a new proposal that would see firefighters respond to more medical interventions.

The OPFFA likes to position itself as the best provider for expanded medical EMS, by making claims that paramedics don't respond as fast or are underfunded - both of which ignore the fact that those issues could be solved by more funding for EMS (and hospitals, to reduce dwell times, as paramedics remain in hospital to assist triage, making offloading one of the big causes of delays), as opposed to Fire.

Their proposal is that firefighters will receive an additional 20-hours of medical training, which will somehow make them equivalent of a paramedic who must complete 2 years of school, 500 hours of on-the-job training, and pass a yearly medical exam.

Does it make sense to pour additional money into the Fire Department to try and turn them into paramedics to respond to medical interventions, when we already have paramedics trained to respond to medical interventions, and could pour additional money into the service to increasing their staffing levels and reduce delays? No, it does not.
 
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Agreed - I think bobbob911 have an insider take on this. In any case, you'd think that it would be more productive to equip ambulances with, and train EMTs in the use of the so called "jaws of life" instead?

AoD
 
Admiral Beez said:
Perhaps this would be less of an issue if we didn't send firefighters and their big truck to every paramedic/health emergency call.

Or if we must send firefighters to every medical call, then let's have smaller fire trucks downtown (exception if needed for the ladder truck). Here are fire trucks from Paris:

Instead of ....
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We have them too, no need to bring the French in it...

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Kitsune said:
I couldnt get my camera out fast enough - but I just witness a SUV making a illegal left out of 390 qq.. taking the streetcar tracks for 2 seconds before driving down the MGT, with a cyclist having to do a emergency maneuver to not get run over..
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They should place some signs like this on the streetcar ROW.

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I read somewhere that grass in the ROW is actually not an impediment to emergency services, but they are just opposed to it. Maybe because if they did drive over it there'd be damage that they'd be required to compensate?
 
Well it was fun while it lasted. Nice to see they're already cutting up the new brick sidewalk. These guys had some kind of coring machine and were drilling straight through the brick. Can't wait for the asphalt patches that are soon to follow. This is why we can't have nice things. At Bay and QQ outside of Waterpark Palce.

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It may just be for road signs. I saw them doing the same a few weeks ago. They drilled through the granite cobbles to install the mounts that hold the street sign posts. They also did something similar to install the mounting devices for the patio barricades around the Swiss Chalet near Rees.
 
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I definitely hope that's what it's for. If they're actually drilling through the stones only to replace the holes with asphalt that outrageous.
 
I hope you're right. I'll report back later today. I may be getting upset for nothing, but it just kills me when utilities cut up something that's just been newly finished. It happens ALL the time in this city.
 
Glad hawc is watching it like a hawk - perhaps you can tweet it to WT - they are usually pretty good at responding. If anything, it's sweaky wheels ALWAYS gets the grease in this city.

AoD
 
the lemur said:
I read somewhere that grass in the ROW is actually not an impediment to emergency services, but they are just opposed to it. Maybe because if they did drive over it there'd be damage that they'd be required to compensate?
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There are ways to plant grass that allow vehicles to travel across it, without damaging it. I think it was just a matter of cheapening out, and then blaming emergency services instead.
 
hawc said:
Well it was fun while it lasted. Nice to see they're already cutting up the new brick sidewalk. These guys had some kind of coring machine and were drilling straight through the brick. Can't wait for the asphalt patches that are soon to follow. This is why we can't have nice things. At Bay and QQ outside of Waterpark Palce.

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I think these are for bike rings. I saw these in various stages when I walked along there on Tuesday. From lines of bored holes with caution tape over them, to installed rings with little piles of brick next to them ready to fill the gaps.
 
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