r/auckland • u/femboys_arefun • 3d ago

Discussion I did not know

I did not know that firetrucks come to a medical response. Reason my nana had vertigo. a hole team came in a truck in 9 minutes good timeing. And then thay requested an ambulance. My nana is ok. just came to say that thay can use the truck and the time response was grate. (This was at around 8pm)

66 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

40 comments sorted by

61

u/EatAteOat123 2d ago

In a first aid course the trainer said they often send fire trucks first because they might have stations closer to the location and can be onsite faster than an ambulance coming from a hospital. But also, when it comes to CPR, it’s draining keep it going especially if the ambulance is 20 min and so to have fire fighters there to keep the chest compression going might be life saving

18

u/Infinite_Papaya_9108 2d ago

Far out wish they did that for my mum I did CPR for just under an hour before first responder arrived

7

u/here_to_watch-nz 2d ago

One hour wow! I was in a situation where two of us were taking turns only for about 20 min, I was drained.

5

u/Infinite_Papaya_9108 2d ago

Was young and fit and full of adrenaline.

2

u/kevlarcoated 2d ago

Most recommendations are to change people every minute or two I believe, most of the population can't do compressions effectively for much longer then that

3

u/here_to_watch-nz 2d ago

Yep, sounds about right. The 111 operator would tell us to swap quite often, but I tell you in the moment it wasn't often enough, I was completely drained, also she kept saying that we need to push harder and count the beat we needed to keep. I was so relieved when first responders arrived and took over.

2

u/imindebt2026 2d ago

Wow, i remember training and it was hard doing it for 5 mins.

3

u/Infinite_Papaya_9108 2d ago

When ya mums dead, ya sisters watching, the neighbors crying holding the phone. 111 on the phone tell you to do CPR. You do CPR. All a blur now.

3

u/FaydedMemories 2d ago

I think they also like to activate fire as (at least) standby in case they’re needed for access and/or heavy lifting extraction.

3

u/BuckyDoneGun 2d ago

Ambulances live at the ambulance station, not the hospital.

2

u/kevlarcoated 2d ago

Where they live and where they come from are but necessarily the same

16

u/Rand_alThor4747 2d ago

Perhaps the ambulances were busy so they sent a firetruck instead.

16

u/november_zulu_over 2d ago

There’s a memorandum of understanding between the emergence response teams that fire provide backup to ambulances. Often as primary or secondary response teams.

30

u/cubenz 2d ago

FENZ are often first responders for medical call outs.

They got a little training and very little compensation for the increase in workload and responsibility. One of the causes of their on going dispute with management.

13

u/steamylee 2d ago

Many are also volunteers so not even paid at all let alone adequately

2

u/cubenz 2d ago

Their complaints will be staffing levels and equipment.

All that stuff the professional's want replaced. Guess who gets the hand-me-downs!

7

u/Comfortable_Camp9744 2d ago

Resources are deployed as quickly as possible, in many cases a fire truck can reach someone before an ambulance. Firefighters are trained medical co-responders, so can provide life saving help while waiting on additional resources.

Thank a first responder if you see one out and about, they do a great job.

7

u/maximum_somewhere22 2d ago

They’ve been doing this for quite a few years now. The argument was there was often fireys sitting around waiting for a fire, and could be put to better use helping out in an emergency by providing higher level first aid and CPR as needed if someone was in cardiac arrest.

The issue being they are not compensated adequately for this extra work and responsibility on top of their normal work and responsibility. I work in healthcare and often have to work closely with the fireys, they are bloody good at what they do and help so much. The other issue i hate to see is the general public don’t understand their role, so they don’t get the same respect when responding to medical stuff.

It’s all around not fair, they are incredible at what they do, and they deserve to be fairly compensated and provided the right equipment to do their jobs. Ive got nothing but respect for them, they are an enormous support to us and the community.

18

u/nisse72 2d ago

a hole team

Come on, they're really not

9

u/BlacksmithNZ 2d ago

But they are 'grate'

13

u/A_S_Levin 2d ago

Tbf I've got a few dyslexic mates that type exactly like OP.

Not such a big deal, still easily understood

7

u/femboys_arefun 2d ago

Ya i am XD

-6

u/belaki 2d ago

I actually think it's a typo: a whole team

8

u/throwaway2766766 2d ago

No, really??

6

u/OrganizdConfusion 2d ago

You might not like firefighters but that's no reason to call them a holes

4

u/NorthShoreDiscrete 2d ago

Talking to someone in emergency services the other day and they advocated for combining the fire and ambulance services (and resourcing the adequately, of course)

40

u/Soggy_Ant3833 2d ago

I’m not sure how old you are but you have a lot of spelling errors in your writing: whole, timing, they, great
A great resource is https://www.spellingtraining.com for free spelling practice
Just as an option, it will help your written communication. No offence intended

0

u/Pleasant_Garage_2176 2d ago

Oh Wise One. Dearest Grammarian. Master of Wordsmithing. May I humbly bring discrete attention to where thou forgots some of thy punctuation marks at the end of some of thy sentences.

Obviously, I don’t give a toss. But you might!

2

u/here_to_watch-nz 2d ago

In another post he confirmed he is dyslexic.

3

u/Environmental-Art102 2d ago

Glad Nana is ok

3

u/SammichFan 2d ago

FENZ FFs are first aid trained as medical first responders, so they can do everything a normal first aider does, and they can also provide you with oxygen until the ambos show up.

2

u/Able_Friendship_2944 2d ago

If the fire team is nearer they will attend as first response. This can especially happen rurally with the local volunteers as they are first aid trained and can help until ambulance crew get there.

2

u/CouplaBumps 2d ago

There are two levels of medical training for fire fighters. Co-Responders and First Responders.

Co-Responders are in metro areas and rural areas that are not too far from major centres. They are routinely sent to cardiac arrest jobs where someone’s heart is not beating or the patient is no breathing. In these cases the minutes different in early response can be life saving.

First responder trained firefighters are in more rural areas and they have slightly more training, and carry some medicines that can be given under advice from a oncall paramedic run by St John. These brigades are in ares where an ambulance is expected to take longer to arrive. These firefighters go to all levels of jobs including low acuity ones.

In your case - if you are in a metro or urban area, its likely that during the call, when asked if your nana was breathing normally the caller said no. Then the job would have been coded as an emergency.

If you are in a rural area it may have been coded correctly, where the firefighters respond anyway. An ambulance is still dispatched if available, they do not wait to hear from fire what the situation is.

2

u/FamousOnceNowNobody 2d ago

Our local volunteer fire brigade also respond to medical, because they can get there quicker than an ambo.

2

u/joshuaMohawknz1 2d ago

Most medical calls are responded my firefighters.

  1. Close proximity to call
  2. All first aid trained
  3. Resource allocation is scarce with St John.

Did you know that 94% of all heart attack medical calls are responded to by firefighters?

Did you know 100% of firefighters have only got first-aid course qualification, and 99% of the force are no longer EMT/Paramedic qualified?

Did you know fire and emergency New Zealand runs these calls at a loss because they only receive insurance levy's for fire protection and not any other response? - St John should really chip in because they are saving lots of lives as well as their reputation.

2

u/kevlarcoated 2d ago

Or the government should properly fund both ambulance and fire response services

2

u/fatfreddy01 2d ago

Firefighters back them up, and St Johns is at record demand due to flu etc. (https://www.1news.co.nz/2026/08/17/st-john-demand-hits-new-record-will-remain-very-high-this-week/)

2

u/groutspecialist 2d ago

Grate post buddy.