It used to be that bed keys were some of the most important tools firefighters carried.
Columbus Fire and Rescue Assistant Chief Duane Hughes explained to the Columbus Rotary Club that bed keys were used to disassemble beds in the 1800s in emergency situations.
“Back in those days, there was one important object in every homeowner’s possession, and that was your bed,” Hughes said. “Beds back then usually ranged around the average of three years’ salary. So when those firefighters came, the only thing you’d want them to do was get your bed out.”
Modern firefighting is different, Hughes said, and the role of the fire protection services have expanded greatly beyond the 1800s, when only homeowners with insurance were guaranteed protection in the event of a fire.
Today, Columbus Fire and Rescue strives to provide the best service possible while wisely using taxpayer dollars, Hughes said. The department’s mission has also evolved from merely responding to fires.
CFR is the only municipal department in Mississippi that’s accredited by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International. As an internationally accredited department, CFR is required to respond to emergency medical calls.
Hughes said medical calls actually make the bulk of CFR’s responses now, as fire departments have worked for decades at increasing fire prevention education.
“At the beginning of my career in 1995, I would go to, on average, three fire calls a week for structure fires,” Hughes said. “Now the department averages three structural fire calls in a month.”
The department’s accreditation, which came in 2014, has led to a drastic increase in calls. Before the accreditation, Hughes said, CFR averaged around 1,700 calls per year. With the increased workload of accreditation, that total rose to nearly 5,000 calls per year, roughly 70 percent of which were medical.
Hughes said the department’s response to emergency medical calls can benefit the community–CFR has two-minute average response time from its five fire stations, while he said ambulances dispatched from Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle have an eight-minute average.
Each of the fire department’s firefighters are trained as emergency medical technicians, Hughes said, and they can start providing basic care to a victim while the ambulance is on the way.
However, he said the department’s big fire trucks weren’t designed for stresses of responding to medical calls.
“The emergency calls we were sending them on was putting a tremendous strain on these fire trucks to where they were needing mechanical repairs just about every other week,” Hughes said.
To alleviate the issue, CFR purchased and started using Med 1, an SUV for use on non-life-threatening medical calls, last year. Hughes said the SUV has cut 500 fire truck responses, and Med 2, another SUV which should enter service in the fall, should cut another 500.
CFR also performs dive, swift water and rope rescues, and responds to various other calls, including hazardous material instances.
It’s a far cry from when saving a bed was a primary concern for a victim.
“Firefighters, back in those days, the only equipment they carried around to show their expertise were those keys,” Hughes said. “If you had those keys, you were the best around.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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