Jayson Jacoby
贝克市先驱报，矿石。
（MCT）
Jun. 20—Morale in the Baker City Fire Department is at “an all-time low,” as it transitions from a dual-role department that responds to fires and ambulance calls to a firefighting only agency, the president of the local firefighters’ union chapter said on Thursday, June 16.
“We come to work and we realize we don’t have the support of the administration, and that is a very depressing place to be,” said Casey Johnson, who is a firefighter/paramedic.
约翰逊说，自4月初以来，他的三名同事离开了部门从事其他工作。
他说，另外两个正在考虑工作。
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约翰逊说，离职的雇员是由市议会决定于9月30日停止运营救护车的动机。
Councilors notified Baker County about that plan on March 22.
在城市经理乔纳森·坎农（Jonathan Cannon）告诉议员之后，他们投票这样做，因为他认为该市无法负担继续救护车服务，因为该市不足以从计费中收取足够的收入来支付其费用。
Under Oregon law, the county, not the city, is responsible for providing ambulance service throughout the county.
在市议会3月22日的通知下，县专员发布了针对新的救护车运营商的提案请求，并收到了私人公司的两次回应 - 希尔斯伯勒的地铁西部救护车和博伊西的胜利EMS。
Commissioners voted unanimously on June 8 to hire Metro West to run ambulances in both the Baker ambulance service area, which includes Baker City and about two-thirds of the rest of the county, as well as the Huntington area.
(The county’s other ambulance service areas are in the Richland and Halfway/Oxbow areas.)
Baker City’s proposed budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 cuts staffing in the fire department from 16.25 full-time equivalents to 10.5.
The City Council is scheduled to adopt that budget June 28.
But Johnson said that with three employees recently leaving, along with another firefighter/paramedic slot that has been vacant for several months, it appears the city might achieve the cuts through sheer attrition.
最近的叛逃使消防部门无法对多个同时呼叫做出反应。
贝克市消防局通知该县的人员短缺一周后，该县于5月24日宣布当地紧急情况。
“When we receive fire call and medical call simultaneously, we will have to triage the calls as they come and determine the greatest threat to life and property,” Baker City Fire Chief Sean Lee wrote in an email to the county. “My hope is that this will give you an opportunity to find a provider for the interim that will be able to maintain the existing level of service.”
In response, the county contracted with a private company, American Medical Response, to have an ambulance temporarily available for calls in the Baker ambulance service area starting Friday, May 27, the beginning of Memorial Day weekend.
AMR在6月10日之前经营一辆救护车。该县每天向该公司支付3,700美元。
县随后批准了一项短期合同ract with Metro West, which will also provide one advanced life support ambulance for the Baker and Huntington ambulance service areas prior to the company fully replacing the Baker City Fire Department.
The county is paying Metro West $1,000 per day. The contract also states that Metro West will reimburse the county for $500 for each “paid transport,” to a maximum reimbursement of $7,000 per week.
Metro West is charging $1,500 for each transport, along with $21 per mile with a patient on board.
该合同持续到7月31日。
城市消防部门“玩第二小提琴”
Johnson said that although he understands the need for more ambulances given the fire department’s shrinking workforce, he points out that this is largely the product of the City Council’s decision to concur with Cannon’s contentions about the department’s financial situation.
他认为这是对他和他的同事的专业精神的侮辱，即该县与Metro West的合同与与AMR的合同共同，将承包商而非城市指定为第一批救护车。
这意味着贝克市消防局只有在合同救护车已经在电话中时才能做出救护车的回应。
Johnson said it’s frustrating to listen to the emergency radio and hear a contract ambulance handling calls that he and his co-workers are accustomed to responding to.
他说：“我们关心我们的社区。”“我们不允许做我们经过培训的事情。我们正在玩第二小提琴。这是痛苦的。”
约翰逊说，例如，如果他听到有关心脏骤停人的紧急电话，他可能会违反标注方案。
He said he doubts he could simply sit in the fire station knowing someone’s life was threatened.
That protocol, besides the clauses in the county’s contracts with its temporary ambulance providers designating them as the first call ambulance, is reiterated in a June 1 memo from Lee, the fire chief.
It reads: “Baker City Fire Departments will not self-dispatch to any emergency call of other emergency agencies. All emergency response agencies have mutual aid request abilities to request Baker City Fire responders.”
More resignations coming?
Although the city’s budget calls for the fire department to continue to respond to fire calls after the ambulance service ends, Johnson said he’s not certain that enough firefighters will stay to meet even the reduced workforce level the city is planning. The city might need to hire replacements for firefighters who leave even though their jobs aren’t on the layoff list, he said.
“There are guys whose jobs are safe who are having a long hard look at what they want to do with their lives,” Johnson said.
He’s one of those guys.
“I love this job — it’s my identity,” he said. “But I’ve been considering getting out of the fire service altogether.”
Johnson, who has worked for the fire department since December 2017, said the stress has been accumulating since the City Council sent its notice to the county March 22.
他睡了睡眠。
Johnson said he would strongly consider taking a job in a larger city with a single-role fire department, where firefighters respond to fires but don’t also operate ambulances.
But he said a job in Baker City, once the fire department ends ambulance service, is much less appealing because there are relatively few fires.
救护车约占该部门电话的85％。
Johnson said a 24-hour shift last week was something of a preview of what he might expect once the city’s ambulances are parked for good.
他说，轮班期间没有一次救护车或消防电话。Metro West处理了所有救护车的要求。
Johnson thinks the city, if it needs to hire firefighters to maintain the workforce budgeted for the coming fiscal year, might find that a tough task.
“What firefighter would want to move to a town where this is going on?” he said.
约翰逊辩称，该市计划的消防部门计划每班两名消防员，这是不够的，对消防员和公众构成威胁。
他特别担心，只有两名消防员值班，除非至少有另外两名消防员可作为备用，否则他们将无法进入燃烧的建筑。
市政府官员对此提出异议。
In the ambulance service information page on the city’s website,bakercity.com该市指出：“即使采用拟议的员工模式，我们熟练的消防部门工作人员仍将能够进入燃烧的建筑物，以挽救根据OSHA法规和法律的生命。该市还与北粉末和贝克农村消防局等其他部门建立了共同的协议和良好的合作伙伴关系。如果需要，他们都可以在大火时提供帮助。”
Jobs with the new ambulance provider?
As required by state law, Metro West’s proposal to the county states that the company “would also offer to hire any fire Paramedics or EMT’s that lose employment with Baker City.”
The law requires that a new ambulance provider give hiring preference to qualified employees from the previous provider for at least six months after the change.
约翰逊称该条款为“可笑”和“可怕的安慰奖”。
He said he would never consider working for the company that replaced the fire department as local ambulance provider — although Johnson said he knows a Metro West paramedic who is stationed in Baker City now, saying he is a “super nice guy.”
约翰逊说，尽管他不能为所有消防部门的员工讲话，但“我看不到我们的消防部门的任何人在娱乐这个想法，”这意味着在大都会韦斯特（Metro West）工作。
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