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Comment by gshulegaard | Hacker News Reader

I am not sure what you are referring to. I was involved in a motorcycle accident in October of 2017 and I was treated by SFFD paramedics in an ambulance.

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The fire department does have some ambulances, but they still respond to non-fires with fire engines as well. Prior to the unification of services, non-fire medical emergencies were serviced by ambulances and EMTs were not required to be firefighters. Now, all EMTs have to be firefighters. I had friends who lost their jobs when the switchover happened because they didn't want to train as firefighters.

Why does the fire department respond to a medical emergency?

Often this is because many firefighters are also certified EMTs. So sometimes, it’s just easier to have the fire department respond.

That being said, I live in a rural state where this makes sense. I cannot imagine the crowded streets of SF are good for this.

They do in most countries actually. There's a lot of similarity in the skills you need.

Don't most countries have a separate ambulance/paramedic service for medical emergencies? Certainly in the UK we have fire, police and ambulance as the three emergency services, one (or more) of which will be sent by the dispatcher following a 999 emergency call. I think most commonwealth countries are the same.

Because Ambulances tend not to carry the kind of heavy duty cutting equipment required to get people out of mangled cars

Often times fire engines and trucks are staffed with 3 EMTs and at least 1 Paramedic. Then the ambulance with 2 paramedics, or 1 paramedic 1 EMT arrives.

It's all about level of care. Overkill for a twisted ankle sure but crucial for a cardiac or other life threatening event.

Because “fire department” is the label put on the general purpose non-law-enforcement emergency response unit of most local governments.

US fire departments are classed as "first responders", with a service level requirement that they normally arrive on-scene within minutes, usually long before police/ambulance/etc.

It makes sense to staff FDs with EMTs and give them responsibility for responding to all manner of emergencies (medical included), since they are already the first responders.

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