Monday, December 13, 1999
Fire, EMS crews find traffic daunting
Fast growth slows response
BY MICHAEL D. CLARK and DAVID ECK
The Cincinnati Enquirer
UNION TOWNSHIP — Feverish, shaking and gasping for air, Wanda Strunk listens anxiously for the emergency sirens that could signal her survival.
Racing through the night to Ms. Strunk's Butler County home are a Union Township fire engine and an emergency medical service truck, for which she had called 911.
They arrive in two minutes, 35 seconds.
Within five minutes, the emergency crews have the 63-year-old Ms. Strunk on a stretcher, breathing from an oxygen bottle, and are lifting her into the EMS truck.
But the race to the hospital at times slows to a crawl, the truck is forced to navigate Union Township's expanding suburban landscape and a sharp, hairpin turn through a narrow passage under a railroad trestle.
Her breathing stabilized by the oxygen and with medications administered along the way already taking effect, Ms. Strunk is admitted to the hospital for treatment of 103-degree fever and pneumonia.
“Knowing help is coming is a relief. You are waiting there desperate for help,” the longtime Union Township resident, who recovered within days, said in an interview back at her home. “Some day it might be you who needs help.”
For suburban fire and EMS crews, the challenge of keeping residents alive rises with each surge in the Tristate population in the once mostly rural areas now sprouting subdivisions. The races for fast-growing communities are not only the daily ones against the clock to provide aid, but also the struggle to keep pace with increased demands because of more residents.
In Union Township, Butler County's fastest-growing community and one of the fastest-growing in the state, fire and
EMS crews battle traffic on narrow rural roads. And even residents who have never dialed 911 are still affected by the quality of their fire and emergency service — through their home insurance rates and in their tax bills.
Individual insurance policies can vary widely, but one insurance company said in general that Union Township residents pay an average of about 5 percent less for fire coverage than nearby Liberty and Fairfield townships because Union's fire department has a better rating among insurers.
Reporters from The Cincinnati Enquirer recently shadowed fire and EMS crews in Union Township, which has seen a 132 percent increase in the number of EMS emergency calls since 1990. They timed and detailed some of their emergency runs during a typical week.
Earlier on the same day that Ms. Strunk suffered her respiratory attack, a 63-year-old Union Township man, whose family described him as “healthy as an ox,” feels an odd snapping sensation in the back of his head.
Soon the man's vision blurs and his family frantically calls 911 for help.
At 6:49 p.m. the call is immediately routed to Union Township's emergency dispatch system and broadcast to Fire Station 1 off of Cincinnati-Dayton Road.
Sirens wailing and lights flashing, the fire station's EMS Squad 94 departs and speeds north along the twisting, narrow West Chester Road, forcing cars to pull over onto grassy road shoulders, dangerously close to drainage ditches.
The old rural roadway soon worsens and the 36-ton firetruck is forced to brake to 5 mph and cautiously move under the same narrow railroad trestle that slowed Ms. Strunk's emergency run to the hospital.
Precious time is lost.
Nevertheless, Squad 94 arrives at the Monticello Road address in seven minutes, having traveled 2.9 miles.
Aware of the railroad trestle impediment, the Union Township dispatcher also sends another EMS crew, Squad 92 from Fire Station 2 on John Street near U.S. 42 in Pisgah. Traveling along newer roads Squad 92 arrives at the Monticello Road home first — in only three minutes.
Tearful family members watch as medics attend to the ailing man. He is a diabetic who suffers from high blood pressure.
Within minutes he is hooked to an intervenous unit and taken by stretcher to an ambulance. The EMS vehicle speeds to Mercy Hospital Fairfield, but it is too late. He dies from a stroke.
Days later his family, who asked not to be identified, is grateful for the EMS crew's effort.
“They were very quick. They were conscientious and professional,” said the man's daughter.
Union Township Assistant Fire Chief Michael Mays grimaces when talking about dangerous delays caused by West Chester Road's hairpin turn under the railroad trestle.
“That turn blocks emergency access to that part of the township. We have had had fire equipment struck there numerous times. Our fire engines have scraped the walls there,” said Assistant Chief Mays, a 13-year veteran of the Union Township fire department.
“Truly, minutes can make the difference in whether people survive,” he said. “The roads in Union Township are definitely a major problem.”
Population in Butler's Union has jumped from just over 23,000 in 1980 to an estimated 59,160 this year.
Thousands more flood onto the township's roads daily as they commute to and from the township's booming businesses.
“The width of the roads are not accommodating the traffic. They were built years ago and are not appropriate for today's traffic,” said Assistant Chief Mays.
The best-trained personnel and latest equipment is worthless unless it gets to the ailing quickly, he said.
“Our goal is to get to any emergency in four minutes,” said Mr. Mays.
He said the average overall time for an EMS or fire run from one of Union Township's five fire stations is five to six minutes.
For EMS and fire runs during the day, the goal is to get in the trucks and on the road in 45 seconds. For emergency crews working the night shift, and sleeping, the goal is 60 to 90 seconds, he said.
There are no universal time standards for emergency runs. Communities and their fire departments set their own goals.
Fire departments are evaluated and rated by the Insurance Service Office, which grades departments every decade on a scale of one to 10, with one representing a first-class rating and 10 denoting no firefighting service at all. The ISO ratings are used by insurance companies as part of their method for determining home insurance rates.
ISO ratings, however, do not involve an evaluation of response times.
“There are no recommended response times,” said Bill Teets, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Commerce, which oversees the the state fire marshal's office. “It's a local matter and we try not to set a standard.”
In October, Union township emergency crews made 284 fire and EMS runs, the highest monthly total ever for the township.
“We are getting a lot busier with runs. We feel that we have to add a third EMS squad staffed around the clock some time in 2000,” said Assistant Chief Mays.
Next year, Union Township will also look to satellites in space to help itsresponse time and efficiency.
Besides improving its communications capabilities via a $3 million upgrade, township fire officials will begin using global positioning satellites so dispatchers know where EMS and firetrucks are at all times.
“There is still a lot of open land to be developed around this area,” he said. “We are definitely concerned about what the future development will be and how we are going to provide services.”
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