Fire Chief Kevin Clifford says the cost to the fire department of responding to medical calls is minimal at 80 thousand dollars or so a year.
He says with an updated digital radio system, it will be easier to sort out which calls not to go to because the first responders will be able to talk to one another which isn’t the case right now.
Clifford says a fire call takes precedence over a medical call. He would not like to see a situation in which the fire department doesn’t respond to any fire calls at all.
About half the calls the fire department receives are medical in nature and the Chief says the fire department gets there first 57 per cent of the time and they don’t respond to every medical call that comes in.
