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Hire paramedics for all stations, county is urged

The concern is that volunteer fire stations without paramedics will lose their efficiency in many emergencies.

By RODNEY THRASH
Published March 17, 2005

SEFFNER - If it was not for the Seffner-Mango Volunteer Fire Department, Robert VanEtten said, he "would have to wait for an engine to come a long distance to my home."

"I don't want to have to wait for five minutes when a unit can be there in two," he said.

VanEtten and Seffner-Mango Fire Chief Bradley Price said they worry that if the county does not add paramedics to volunteer fire engines soon, Hillsborough's volunteer stations could become inefficient.

"It will probably mean the extinction of the volunteer firefighters in Hillsborough County," Price said.

Not if Commissioner Ronda Storms has anything to do with it. On Wednesday, she asked her commission colleagues to give the county staff the authority to study the issue.

"This board has a financial duty to provide services in the most efficient way possible," Storms said.

Commissioner Ken Hagan agreed.

"My only concern is that we're providing the highest level of service," he said.

He should know. In August, he asked the commission to staff the Lutz Volunteer Fire Department with three shifts of paramedics and a fill-in at a cost of $291,091.

Seffner-Mango wants the same. But it has had a difficult time getting what it wants.

Price has asked, but every time, "fire administration said, "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it,' " he said. "I like to check the structure of a bridge before I walk across it, and this bridge is going to collapse."

Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Chief Bill Nesmith says he's not against adding paramedics at the five volunteer stations without that service. He's just not sure if now is the time.

When Nesmith took office eight years ago, he tried staffing every fire engine with a paramedic. At many of the 32 paid stations, that has been accomplished. The same can't be said of the volunteer stations. Before Lutz added its paramedics, there were none assigned to any of the six volunteer fire departments. Why? Paramedics rarely decline paying jobs in exchange for free labor, and that would have been the case, before the paid staff was added in Lutz.

"If we need to hire solely trained paramedics (at additional volunteer fire departments) in the future, we will certainly do that," Nesmith said. "We are taking great strides to make that happen."

Waiting until later won't cut it, Storms said.

"We need to be adopting this into policy," she said. "If we're going to be providing (a) paramedic to one house, it should be that we're providing that for the other volunteer houses. The other volunteer houses should have the same opportunities."

Rodney Thrash can be reached at 813 269-5313 or rthrash@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 17, 2005, 01:06:18]