Fire departments have been struggling for years with a growing identity crisis. Many people simply assume that the fire department just puts out fires and doesn’t deal with all of the other emergency events that occur in a community. Lacey Fire District has been particularly hit hard by false stereotypes or identity loss in that the fire department has been doing Emergency Medical Services since the late 60’s and early 70’s and it has now become the primary service we provide. But that’s on top of the many other services such as wild land fire suppression, initial hazardous materials response, rescue of all sorts, public safety issues, police assists, and on and on…
One critical thing that the politicians never see is what takes to do the job in the field. When we look at the Lacey city council or the city manager, none of them to our knowledge have ever been with us on a call. They’ve been to the main fire station a hand full of times, but I am not aware of ever seeing them at the substations or ever attending our training. And this is really clear when you attend a city council meeting and they give recognition to responders and members of the city but never to our knowledge have they recognized the fire department even when times were good or ‘we were a team!’ Recently, I heard in a city council meeting Lacey Police getting all sorts of props for the “Fire and Ice” game (likely never to be played again) but never once was there mention of the fire fighters efforts in actually organizing the event. Another example was then they recognized Polish exchange students and discussed sister city arrangements with potential Polish cities, but have ignored the fact that Polish fire officers from the state school in Warsaw have been training at Lacey Fire District for over 5 years. The city council and their manager have no idea what goes on at Lacey Fire District or what we really do.
“So what” you may ask? The point is that “our” politicians have no clue that the pending health crisis will be ground zero in Lacey. They’ve been so isolated by their own intentions that they don’t understand and are ignorant to the very challenges that face our community especially in emergency services. Perhaps no place could the many aspects and impacts of the medical crisis potentially hit as hard as in Lacey. In days, “Bonaventure”, a large commercial retirement living center with hundreds of residents will open on Yelm Highway in Lacey and anecdotal estimates are that it could add two to three additional calls for service from Lacey Fire District every day.
A key point is that as our population ages, we know that there will be more need for EMS services and “Bonaventure” is just one of many now and future retirement centers our city will see. And this is a decision that the city of Lacey has embraced and we value (union and fire department) our senior citizens too, but we need to provide for them adequately. By 2019, we know that the city and district fire department (one or split) will see more people over the age of 65 than under as total patient load by 911 call. If the city of Lacey is planning to reduce services by cutting staffing, then aren’t we putting our most vulnerable at risk?
When you read the Olympian’s lead story today about cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, ask a fire fighter who it will affect the most. And we tell you that it’s the patient first and the fire department second. We are or are at least becoming the default primary care as doctors and clinics leave town or more refuse to take government backed healthcare plans. At this is the case, we are called daily to see residents of our community because they can’t see a doctor or can’t afford sometimes the gas for their car let alone an ambulance bill to make it to the hospital.
I was shocked in learning that some cities in our country have taken steps to thwart elderly residents, like Lander, Texas. Their fire department has advised that their building codes block or deter retirement living. It’s time for the City of Lacey to step up! Now that’s major retirement living is here and more is coming, they need to do the right thing and step up and support public safety, which our retired and future retired residents need and have made it clear that they want.