Fire departments have been responding to accidents and medical emergencies for decades; however, many citizens are still puzzled about the critical role firefighters play in such situations.

A common perception is that a firefighter's primary tools are a fire hose and ax. The reality is that Clay Fire firefighters are equally familiar with medical services, such as:

• Administering an electric shock and drugs to restart a heart
• Extricating an accident victim from a crushed vehicle while simultaneously treating their injuries
• Inserting a breathing tube

In fact, 70% of our calls are for medical emergencies.

Timing & Location
When a heart stops or a serious injury occurs, seconds count. Given Clay Fire's network of 5 strategically located community-based firehouses, the same response time advantage that exists for fires also exists for medical emergencies. Clay Fire provides the community with Advanced Life Support fire engines and transport ambulances to provide critical care and to stop the clock against further illness or injury.

Additionally, more serious medical emergencies require a full team of responders. In the case of cardiac arrest, while 2 people perform CPR, others establish IVs, set up a heart monitor, administer drugs, and bring a gurney to the patient's side for transport.

Emergency Medical Services
Clay Fire has always taken its role in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) as seriously as its commitment to firefighting. Every uniformed member of our fire department is a certified emergency medical technician (EMT) and more than 1/3 are certified as paramedics.

Clothing Indicator
The next time you see a fire engine responding to an incident, look at the firefighters in the cab. If they're wearing their heavy fire gear, they're going to a fire. If they are in shirtsleeves, it's a safe bet they are headed for a medical emergency.