Entire county dispatched to structure fire

[vonk]

Wow last night we got a call at 1:00 am for a general illness the typical mid night call we got back to our station around 2:00 am while we were filling out the last bit of our paperwork we got dispatched to a structure fire at a twelve story retirement home. By the time we were released at 6:30 am there were thirty eight fire engines, trucks, command vehicles, and medic units. Looking at the dispatch system during the call there were only six units for our 316,973 resident country and while our county is densely populated it covers 245 square miles. Six available units for the entire county some how this call seemed a little overkill to me especially when only one person went to the hospital.

[island emt]

First we need some more details to develop the BIG picture.

Where are you located? deep south or up north with frigid temps and lots of snow?

How many residents in the 12 story retirement home ?

50 , 100, 200 ??? more??/

How large was the fire? one unit ?? one floor? or multiple stories???

That type of structure is a high risk occupancy with elderly less able to evacuate on their own and probably needing assistance.

A proper preplan for that building would have enough resources on first alarm to evacuate ALL residents and enough fire apparatus to be able to provide the needed flow for a fully involved structure of that many square footage.

Add in enough additional manpower to provide crews to assist with evacuating all the residents first and fighting the fire second.

There is often much more involved in planning for a call to a building of this size & occupancy than you may be aware of from your seat as an EMT in a single ambulance.

If you were on scene for 4 1/2 hours then this was a major incident

[vonk]

Yes it was a major incident the building had poor ventilation and only one main stairwell from the looks of when they were allowing people back into the building there was around 150 to 200 people. We are in Henrico County just outside of the city of Richmond so yes we are in the south but that being said it was around 11 degrees at the time of the incident and we had just had a major snow storm (six inches yes that is a blizzard for us here) so there was already a lot of ice which was coupled with all of the water leaking from the fire hoses on scene. As for the fire I was never told how many units were involved but it was on the second floor and was put out completely in roughly 30 to 45 minuets. The majority of the time on the call was taken up by room by room inspections for more fire in the entire building. It was very ingesting thought.

[Just Plain Ruff]

Sounds like there needed to be that many units there.

Your county should have activated their mutual aid agreements but honestly at 3 am or so how many medical calls does your county get?

A 12 story building with 150 residents, that makes me think that there are at least 8 unit on each floor so a total of 100 units.

That's a 4 alarm fire in the city of Baltimore or Kansas city. Not out of the realm of outrageous in terms of units.

Did your county have any EMS calls or fire calls for service during the duration of the Major incident?

Honestly, I'm not really sure I understand why you are so upset.

Often in Baltimore or KC MO there are 1 or 2 ambulances available for a city with a population of 500+ thousand due to call volume. But when you activate mutual aid it really doesn't get that bad.

[island emt]

It certainly sounds like someone had done a proper preplan and had the correct amount of resources available for this call.

Just the facts of a major [to you folks] weather incident coupled with a high occupancy elderly housing project and a working fire make it necessary for all hands response to the scene.

I realize that as an EMT you have not had the exposure to this level of management of emergency incident command procedures , so maybe it's time to do some homework on preplanning and incident command for larger incidents.

[vonk]

First I would like to preface that I was not upset at all I was just suppressed by the volume of units working or on standby no as it was three in the morning there was a dispatch for another fire call not nearly as large scale some where in the country and there was one or two medical calls which happened through the course of the entire event. Ironically we had just completed our FEMA certification in class and to be completely honest the whole operation was run extremely smooth thanks to us having four battalion chiefs and the fire marshal. Its probably because I am still new to ems why I found it so surprising but talking with my crew chief apparently they had already planed for a incident like this in this exact building because it is unsafe as compared to modern buildings go. I just thought i would share my experiences because i thought it was interesting given the size of event and the planing of unit placement because our county oddly shaped which made me question the unit placement. It all worked out and that is what counts. Thanks for being supportive and helping me learn and grow my knowledge in the ems community.

[Just Plain Ruff]

Good that you are taking our discussion as constructive rather than destructive critique.

Some people would not.

Stick around here grashopper

[paramedicmike]

The next time you're at your station ask about their plans for events at some of the larger properties in your area. Use this fire as an example and tell them you want to learn more about the process. Ask to look at some of the plans (we used to keep a copy of the plans for some of the bigger and more complex facilities in the ambulance). I think you'll be surprised at what goes in to developing and executing these types of incidents.

[island emt]

just woke up to a major weather incident here .

Nah who am I kidding ::::

only got 8 inches of snow last night with a crust of rain on top for good measure.

Just a dusting as they say here in Maine.

hardly worth getting out the shovels for.

[paramedicmike]

Doesn't matter. You don't have anywhere left to put it. The snow blowers can't throw it over the piles they've already created from the more than eight feet you've gotten in the past month.