To Assist or Not…Should FD’s be responsible to help private transport companies?

This will be short and sweet.

A private ambo company called the County FD for a lift assist for a 700 lb. person who was being taken back home. The FD told them they couldn’t help them and that it was against policy. The owner of the private ambo company is not happy. (That is my very brief synopsis) Read the article here

CKEMPT over at Life Under The Lights wrote an article three times as long as the original on the topic here.

Here are my thoughts (they are mostly the opposite of all the other comments):

• I agree with the FD.
• This was not a 911 call.
• This is not what the FD is for.
• The private ambo company should not have taken the transport if they could not complete it.
• The private ambo company is making money on this transport and should not rely on the FD as free labor.
• If the FD is to help them, they are opening themselves up to doing more and more unnecessary calls that they should not be running.

This situation would be different if it were a 911 call or if the FD agreed to bill the private ambo (for profit) company for their assistance. I also see no problem in helping with a lift assist if it were a crew from their department.

Many are faulting the FD for not helping. Why is it their fault? Why isn’t it the private ambo companies fault for not planning, being irresponsible, poor decision making, and all around not caring?

I wrote plenty more in the comments. There are around 70 comments now.

I just do not agree with them and I don’t see their points. I have tried and tried, but I cannot understand how this fits under our ever changing and not so well defined job descriptions.

As always, I am open for the discussion and I can and will adjust my opinion if I am given compelling argument that I didn’t think of otherwise. However, up until this point I have not heard anything that has made me want to change my mind.