The Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center distilled this information from the 24-hour reports, 72-hour reports, and facilitated learning analysis documents they have received so far this year, about halfway through the 2013 wildfire season. The word “incidents” refers to the above reports which have been forwarded to the Center.
While this news is nothing short of shocking (no pun intended regarding the use of AED’s), NWCG and the USFS specifically seem to be missing the mark by a long shot in regards to medical on fire. While there is a lot of discussion locally and nationally, talk is cheap.
EMT’s with the USFS and some other federal agencies are working without medical direction due to the bureaucracy of the system and we will continue to see people needing medical attention.
Current rules with buying teams forbid MUL’s from purchasing fresh drugs so in some cases EMT’s are going on the line with expired medications.
I would love to help bring this issue to the forefront and get our brothers and sisters the best care possible, but it seems to continually be met by deaf ears. Does anyone have any ideas on how we can make this issue more important so that eventually there will be a national standard at least for the federal fires? I’m all ears.
Mark