According to NIMS, the nearest emergency agency is to respond, reader says
Letter to the Editor,
People of Lincoln County, there is quite a controversy over who responds to medical incidents in the Cabinet View Fire Service Area south of the City of Libby.
From what I understand, Cabinet View Fire Department has eight trained first-responders and/or EMTs, who would like to respond initially to medical incidents while LVA, which is a greater distance away, is responding to transport the patient.
Some think LVA should be the only one to respond to medical incidents, even though quicker medical response is available.
According to the National Incident Management System (NIMS), which the Lincoln County Commissioners signed on to and agreed to follow in 2004, it says the nearest agency is to respond. Federal grants have been issued to agencies in Lincoln County who have signed legal papers saying they follow NIMS.
I understand there are those who want Cabinet View Fire Department to respond only to structure fires.
Here is my question: If someone is injured in a structure fire in the Cabinet View Fire Service Area, are the Cabinet View Fire Deptartment EMTs not allowed to care for the patient, or is the whole fire department supposed to leave the scene because it is now a medical situation?
If Cabinet View Fire Department, with their EMTs, is not supposed to respond to vehicle accidents because those incidents are medical, even though the fire department has the tools to extricate if necessary, personnel who are qualified as first responders, apparatus to take care of a possible vehicle and/or wildland fire, as well as take charge of traffic control, then it would follow that they should leave the patient unattended at a structure fire and tell the patient to wait because LVA will be coming.
Does that make sense to anyone?
If we think it is absurd to leave a person in need, then why would we not want the closest and fastest emergency response agency to get there to help them in the first place?
Who cares if it is a structure fire, wildland fire, vehicle accident, heart attack in the home, or whatever the emergency may be? There is a person in need.
People are more important than money, egos, or whatever else is standing in the way of people working together. That is why the Incident Command System works.
It is an organized way to deal with incidents, allowing everyone to work together, and is part of NIMS, something all emergency services in Lincoln County have signed on to and have said they follow.
If they don’t follow it, perhaps the federal government should investigate to see whether federal funds were received under false pretenses.
If that is the case, those funds would have to be returned to the federal government.
Please, just have and use some common sense and hold to some integrity.
— Janet Miller
Troy