>>76357502
Ever department I've worked for runs rescue and fire. We show up with an ambulance and an engine with at least 3 AEMTSs and a paramedic to each call. This is especially important in motor vehicle accidents. I can't imagine being a paramedic working a car crash and waiting 30 minutes for a volunteer fire department to muster and cut the crushed dashboard off of your lower body. Even in minor crashes, if the airbags haven't gone off, I'm waiting for someone with the tools to show up and cut the battery. And if you have a spinal injury and nobody is around to cut the roof off, you'll get extracted in ways that will probably not be good for your already damaged spinal cord.
But it's true that structure fires are not as common or dangerous as they once were. Most departments should probably run and staff two ambulances for every one engine if not 3:1. And maybe have an extra ambulance running inter facility transfers to provide experience and get some extra scratch for the department.
I will take umbrage with the comparison of private ambulance services. They are always calling fire deparments for lift assists and mass casualty events. If they actually had to staff enough personnel to handle the once a week multi car pileup or obese bitch who got stuck between her toilet and tub, they wouldn't be anywhere near as cost effective.
The private ambulance service I trained with had a saying
>don't lift with your back–lift with your fireman.
and we had them dispatched to help us for nearly everything that wasn't a simple rescue. It's actually what made me want to become a firefighter. Emergency medicine is my passion, combining it with firefighting just seemed natural.