A CO Emergency: Whose Call Is It, Anyway?

摘要

It's 0500 hours, and you and your ems partner are anxiously waiting for the end of the shift. You monitor your scanner and hear the fire department being dis-rnpatched to a two-story private dwelling in your response area for a carbon monoxide (CO) emergency run. As you wonder out loud if your unit will get dispatched, several thoughts race through your head: Will we get the job as a standby for a "fire" call? Will we be dispatched to support the hazardous materials unit? Or, most likely, you will think that maybe this is just another nuisance alarm where "I will stand by and watch others work until someone presents with signs or symptoms." Worse yet, from your experience, you think, "I won't even getrnthe call."rnSo, whose call is this anyway? Is a CO emergency a fire/hazmat call when only EMS is needed after confirmation of the presence of symptomatic patients? Is a CO emergency an EMS call that may necessitate fire/hazmat support to supplement an initial EMS response? Or, is it an emergency run that routinely requires fire and EMS response, work-rning together, to successfully mitigate the incident and ensure that no health and safety hazard exists?