Orange County Sheriff's Dept. and Fire Authority fighting again over helicopters

  • Source: Orange County Register
  • Published: 08/03/2017 05:50 PM

The turf war is back on between the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the Orange County Fire Authority over whose helicopters should respond to rescue calls. A proposed agreement in which both agencies would share rescue calls was pulled from next week’s Board of Supervisors agenda because of opposition from fire officials and city council members in Santa Ana, Tustin and Yorba Linda. An undated letter from the union to Fire Chief Jeff Bowman accused the sheriff’s pilots of “snatching and grabbing” patients regardless of medical condition. For more than a year, sheriff’s helicopters have poached rescue calls intended for Orange County Fire Authority helicopters, often racing to the scene first and taking over medical aid. Sheriff’s pilots have sometimes ignored instructions to “stand down” from incident command staff.



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