Photo courtesy of Long Beach Fire Department

After a series of grilling questions from City Council directed towards Long Beach Fire Chief Mike DuRee, City Council made a motion to revisit the implementation of the proposed Rapid Medic Deployment model for Long Beach.

According to Tuesday’s report filed by the Fire Department, the Rapid Medic Deployment model consists of reconfiguring the combination of staff on the response units to accomodate for budget cuts. Current staffing combination has two firefighter-paramedics per single Advanced Life Support unit, while the new model places one trained firefighter-paramedic and a single function EMT on a unit. DuRee has said that the model does not eliminate jobs, but moved the additional paramedics (paramedics are firefighters first) out of overtime positions on ambulances and onto fire trucks, which will improve service. 

Those who object to the model–including the president of the Firefighters Local 372–argue otherwise, saying that it will reduce ambulance coverage and that the negative effects of such a model have never been studied.

DuRee explained that due to current budgetary issues, a surge of a little over $2 million would be required to maintain the emergency services as is. When asked if in the event more funds could be allocated, what would be the primary concern for DuRee, he would reinstate the lost engine from Fire Station 8. “Last out, first in,” he said.

At the moment, City Council has only approved the filing of the report by the Fire Department. Before any implementation of this program, City Council will review the new model and also revisit budgetary concerns for the Fire Department.

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