Should the Swartz Creek Area Fire Department reinstate the long-gone service of responding to medical calls? At least one area firefighter thinks so.
Kyle Ward, a firefighter with the Mundy Township Fire Department and employee of Mobile Medical Response ambulance company, last week asked the Swartz Creek City Council to consider offering emergency medical services through the SCAFD, which covers both the city and Clayton Township.
“It’s a baseline service for the community,” Ward said.
In October, new protocols for dispatching fire departments to medical calls went into effect. County officials have said the move was to provide consistency across jurisdictions.
Fire departments that have medical first responders and EMTs now are dispatched only when the nearest ambulance is farther than eight miles from the scene.