Hello all,
I listen to the Columbus Fire/EMS feed and was just wondering, On some calls you hear say Medic12 by themselves being dispatched or a medic and engine company for a breathing difficulties call. Other times, like last night I heard an engine company and EMS11 being dispatched for a CVA. Around here the ambulances are all ALS units, and just go by 406 408 414 etc. I was just wondering what the difference between a Medic unit and the EMS units are.
All CFD transport vehicles are ALS level (medics); BLS level units (squads) were phased out several years ago, and each engine company now has at least one paramedic level firefighter on board. In the past, medics carried three firefighters and squads two, but now medics are staffed with two firefighters.
CFD used to send two medics (and farther back, a medic and a squad) on ALS-level runs, but now send a medic and an engine. Not everyone agrees with running the wheels off a $250,000 engine in that manner, but it has proved to be a more efficient use of apparatus and manpower than tying two medics and six firefighters up on a run where only one transport vehicle is needed. You still have five or six personnel tied up on the run, but the engine company is usually back in service much more quickly than another medic would have been.
The EMSxx units are the EMS supervisors (generally Lieutenant or Captain). EMS11 is the Battalion 1 supervisor, EMS12 the Battalion 2 supervisor, and so on up through Battalion 7. They generally respond on major medical runs, freeway incidents, and so forth.
The numbering scheme in Central Ohio dates back to the 1970s. Apparatus are numbered by apparatus type and station number (Engine 12 is at Station 12, Medic 7 at Station 7, Rescue 111 at Station 111 and so forth). It's quick, simple and in plain language; you know instantly who they are, what they are, and where they're from, rather than trying to remember in the heat of the moment who and what a unit is based on a number alone.
