By JOSEPH KELLARD
Prodded, and not a little embarrassed, by this incident, the OFD-s board of fire commissioners has made changes to its emergency response protocol, and Nassau County has taken steps to provide additional ambulance support to prevent such incidents in the future.
Previously, when an Oceanside resident called the OFD directly for an ambulance, the dispatcher sent out an initial signal to Rescue Company and another fire company, and the chiefs decided whether to send out additional signals. If after three minutes there was no response to the original alarm, a second signal was sent out to everyone in the department. If after another three minutes there was still no response, the dispatcher would call a neighboring fire department for mutual aid.
The board recently reformed this policy, taking these decisions out of the hands of the chiefs. The dispatcher now automatically makes the decisions on when to call for the second signal or mutual aid, and must do so within seven minutes, as opposed to the original nine. That takes the guesswork out of the original procedure, because sometimes you-re involved in a call and you-re not cognizant of the time frame and how many minutes have gone by, Oceanside Fire Commissioner Dennis McGlynn told the Herald. And since we-ve instituted the policy, we haven-t had to call mutual aid once.
However, when a resident calls the OFD directly for an ambulance, protocol requires the dispatcher to first contact a 911 operator to see if a county ambulance is available. If either of the county-s two ambulances in the Fourth Precinct-s coverage area which ranges from Oceanside to Inwood is available, the county will send one to the caller-s home. If both ambulances are busy assisting others, the call is immediately kicked back to the OFD.
In the past, when the OFD has received a direct emergency call, Rescue Company was first due. The board of fire commissioners, however, changed this protocol in the mid-1990s. When Mitch Krasnoff, an ex-captain of Rescue Company, ran for commissioner in 2001, his top campaign issue was to rescind the new protocol.
Krasnoff offered a hypothetical situation to underscore what he said was the system-s greatest flaw. He used as an example an elderly women who lives adjacent to Rescue Company to show that if the company were holding a meeting at the firehouse and she called the OFD for an ambulance, the dispatcher would be required to call the county first for its ambulance. Even if the county ambulance were in Inwood at the time, the procedure would dictate that it be sent to her house instead of Rescue-s ambulance which was 100 feet away and fully manned.
Additionally, Krasnoff pointed out that if a fire department from a neighboring town were to call Oceanside for mutual aid for, say, a minor traffic accident while the woman next door was awaiting an ambulance, the Rescue ambulance would drive past her house to the accident scene.
When I ran for commissioner, one of my main issues was ambulance care for the community, Krasnoff told the Herald after learning about Garden-s incident. And evidently it was never addressed.
McGlynn said that the OFD is not first due for emergency calls because there is usually a county ambulance in the area one is stationed at the Kohl-s shopping center in Oceanside and its response time is faster than the OFD, a volunteer force. Lately, the county has been busier with calls, McGlynn said, and if its ambulances are at a major accident or at a number of calls simultaneously, the county decides quickly whether it will take the call or kick it back to the OFD. McGlynn said there may be a one-minute lapse between the time the county gets the call and kicks it back if it is unable to respond.
In people-s minds it is a big difference, and I can understand [the confusion] if you-ve called Oceanside Fire Department and the Nassau County police pull up, McGlynn said. And the only reason we-ve been doing that is that we have a manpower problem getting the rescue truck out, but we have an obligation to the taxpayer to get them the best that we can in the least amount of time.
Anthony McArty, who is challenging McGlynn for his seat on the board in an election on Dec. 14, echoed the commissioner-s support for the protocol that makes the county ambulance first due. If we can lessen the work load for the volunteer portion of it, McArty said, I-m all for it by getting the paid ambulance there. ... At least you have some control over the scene, and you-re guaranteed this because the county is a paid agency 24/7.
McArty characterizes the OFD-s emergency force as dedicated, but he underscored that its consists of volunteers. He cited the county-s high cost of living as one reason the OFD finds it difficult to recruit and retain volunteers, especially EMTs. The state mandates that emergency medical technicians re-certify their credentials, requiring that they take several hours of schooling paid for by the county which most volunteers must spread across several months.
Our guys aren-t getting paid; they-re doing it on their own free accord, McArty said. When you start spreading that out over six months to get re-certified, people start to question whether it-s worth it or not.
About the strictness of the policy making the county first due for emergency calls to the OFD, McArty said, The dispatchers realize that if they get a call from someone who lives next to Rescue Company who is having an asthma attack, as opposed to someone else with a sprained ankle, the dispatcher would not go through that extra two- or three-minute process of notifying Nassau county for them to respond. They would automatically put out the call to Rescue.
Meanwhile, county Legislator Jeff Toback announced that a third ambulance will be added to the Fourth Precinct-s coverage area either late next spring or early next summer. The ambulance will be available from at least 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and possibly from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., depending on demand. Using its capital budget, this year the county purchased eight new ambulances, and the best of the retired vehicles will remain in service for the Fourth Precinct.
The most publicized events in Oceanside really brought my attention to this issue, Toback said, and Oceanside fire commissioners Dennis McGlynn and Doug Diciglio were really instrumental in getting this accomplished.
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