• Registered: 2006-11-24
  • Posts: 34

Topic: Private MICUs in fire stations

I was speaking to a fire chief in Georgia the other day. He is the chief of a good size county fire department. He told me that the EMS for the county was hospital based and that a few of his stations had one of these EMS units quartered in it. He went on to say that this system did not work very well. He explained that some of the EMS personnel were members of other fire departments, working part time for the hospital. These people worked well with the county firefighters. But the people who were full time EMS / Hospital employees did not work well with the people at the fire stations.  I am not saying that it can't be some of county FFs fault that this occurs, but it does happen.

Does anyone know of a system where private or third service EMS is quartered in fire stations that works well? Or perhaps the question should be, "Wouldn't it be better if one agency handled it?"

I don't what to get in the pissing contests that happens on other fire forums. From what I have read elsewhere it appears that many private EMS personnel HATE the thought of fire department EMS AND hate firefighters. It also seems that they are not afraid to say it.

I am sure that there are systems where private EMS and the fire department work well together. Are there good examples?
Is there a place where I could call the chief or the head EMS officer and he or she would tell me that it works great?

2 Reply by spark

  • spark
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  • Registered: 2006-11-21
  • Posts: 102

Re: Private MICUs in fire stations

I can say that while many Fire Departments will not have experience with this, it is not a new situation. Some agencies have co-quartered these resources for years. I can't say how well it works however. That is more complex a subject than only hearing from the troopies (IMHO). I will say that where it has difficulties, it should be addressed before it gets to be a sick work place. Employees that don't like it or they wish their own group controlled it, are normal feelings. Perhaps either of those groups could do it better, in their local case. But any member that says they hate the other group, is already acting unprofessional. Like a well known Doc in my area once said about a Fire dispatch failure case, "It's a sad case where two people weren't listening to each other".


I am in TX, and don't recall the Privates that quarter with Fire. But the largest Third Service in TX (to my knowledge) used to be in Austin. Some of their resources were co-located back when I was producing my list of Texas Departments. I haven't maintained my Station visits, and don't know today. But their website does cover their Station locations and may be useful.

Hmmm, now that I must monitor my BP, I guess I'll start visiting all the firehouses again, haha.