Cadet

The standard tends to be 10 years of service (give or take a few years) around the time rigs get replaced. The problem that is happening now is that if you look only 6 of the 19 engines are 2006's with the rest being from 2001. Most of the rescues and all of the trucks (with the exception of 48) have been replaced as well as the special units with the exception of the Haz Mat and Air Resource. As to the units being leased I have not heard that. There was word sent out a few months ago in regards to 2 engine and 2 or 4 (not sure which) rescues being purchased, with that being said station 108 (Bonanza & Lamb) will begin building hopefully next month and will probably house an engine and rescue.

Hey everyone, I know there has been some recent talk about both departments and their shops getting busy with receiving and sending out apparatus. I know in these tough times both shops have seen their fair share of cuts and was wondering what normal staffing tends to be (before the economy took a dive, and what it currently is staffed at) and how these departments are adapting to these situations? Any info helps, just curious on how it all works there. Thanks

Yes in a sense it is a race but more often than not if its a lower priority call the private unit will take it in order to free up the fire unit (sometimes the system gets very busy though). In regards to county fire the private will transport unless its a critical patient (and the private isn't on scene) since even if AMR or MWA was on scene the patient would go in their ambulance with the county medic riding in, county also takes all fire personnel and police that need to go to the hospital. County is only supposed to (last I heard) transport around 1,000 patients a year so they are mainly on scene first to stabilize and then turn it over to the private unit so they can go back in service. As far as I can tell within Clark County AMR isn't the sole transport unit around whether it be fire or MWA.

Currently in the city of Las Vegas there is a dual response meaning that a unit from the fire department and a unit from a private ambulance will respond to the call. A new transport plan being made by LVFR is going to basically go like this- if a fire unit is on scene first and the private unit isn't on scene within a certain time then the fire unit will transport given that its a fire rescue, in the case of an engine or truck after that time period is up for the private to get on scene then the engine or truck will request a fire rescue to transport. Also in the case that it is a critical patient then fire will transport (if on scene first). In the past the dual response was used in order to free up the fire unit for more serious calls such as fires and MVA's but because of the economy it seems to be financially better to have fire units transport more. Not sure how the privates feel about it, AMR mainly runs with county fire and MWA runs with county and north town (North Las Vegas) fire departments so there isn't much of a loss for anyone at this point. This is the initial plan and as of now I haven't gotten word of when this new plan (if it hasn't happened already) will start.