It’s been over a month since the Billings Fire Department deployed its first mobile response team vehicles. These two teams of him have been busy answering medical calls ever since. It can be as simple as a cut toe or as serious as a heart attack.
“It’s like the Wild West, you and one of your partners get to the scene first,” says Josiah Razloffi, a firefighter and paramedic.
The first mobile response team vehicle, a lightweight brush truck loaded with medical supplies, is based at No. 6 Fire Station in Billings Heights and is funded by $1 million sent to Billings Fire Station from the voter-approved Public Safety Factory Tax of 2021. Funded from dollars. .
Each team consists of trained police officers and paramedics with advanced lifesaving skills.
“This is a big difference in the level of care, so we can push heart medications, we can intubate. You can,” says Laszloffy.
It’s time for Billings firefighters to get busier than ever. Last year, the department responded to over 18,000 of his calls.
“It got more intense, more calls came in. And with the population growth we’ve seen, calls of all kinds are booming,” said 18-year-old Capt. Adam Tipton. says.th Years with departments.
Most calls handled by the fire department are medical and not fire related.
“75% to 80% is classified as medical in nature. It’s this efficiency to really drill down to get to the essence of using the right tool for the right job. says Cameron McCamry, another veteran of the department.
Previously, engines were deployed on every call, whether there was a fire or not.
In the chart below you can see the difference the MRT program has already made.
MTN News
Four weeks before the program started, an engine had to be called from another station to cover the Heights 21% of the time. Four weeks after the program started, the engine had to handle only 30% of the calls. Another station’s engine arrived just 11% of the time to cover. Mobile-enabled teams received the majority (59%) of calls.
McCamley states that it not only protects the Heights better, but also protects the entirety of Billings by doubling its power.
“We are not pulling other units out of downtown or other areas or keeping those areas open.
A second MRT train is expected to enter service by the end of this year.