Ready to save your life: Idaho Falls Fire EMS runs to the rescue every day
David Pace
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) – Ask any child to name their hero – and Mom, Dad, fireman and policeman are likely to top the list.
Chase Mills, Idaho Falls Fire Department’s new Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Division Chief, took us behind-the scenes at Station One to learn about the intensive work paramedics and firefighters perform each day.
“Our ambulances respond to any 911 call that is involving a medical situation,” Mills said. “So anything from someone who is just really sick and needs help to go to the hospital, to vehicle accidents or significant traumas.”EMS crews hit the road more than 40 times every day.
“The ambulances respond to approximately 15,000 calls a year,” Mills explained. “It’s roughly 80 percent of our call volume for the Idaho Falls Fire Department.”
The Department has about 50 paramedics.
Paramedics receive two years of additional medical training to care for and stabilize individuals facing emergencies or trauma.
“It teaches us the basics of intervening in life-saving measure,” said Idaho Falls Fire Paramedic Ryan Taggart, “such things as providing intubation for essentially placing a breathing tube into somebody’s trachea in order to be able to breathe for them, to be able to read cardiac rhythms and to be able to provide the appropriate intervention to save lives.”
The firefighters and paramedics are deeply committed to the mission they provide for the community.
“The work that we do can be tough. It’s challenging, and I love that,” said Firefighter EMT Donovan Hendrix. “I’m super fascinated with the human body and how it works and how we can affect it as providers.”
Hendrix will be attending paramedic school this fall at Idaho State University.
The preparation pays off in someone’s hour of need.
“Someone’s bleeding to death because of a significant trauma, childbirth – anything that happens in a hospital, we have to be prepared to take care of in the field,” Mills said. “Our goal is to stabilize patients and make sure that they get to the hospital in a better way than we found them.”
Idaho Falls Fire Department’s new EMS Division Chief Chase Mills (left), Paramedic Ryan Taggart (top right), and Firefighter EMT Donovan Hendrix (top left) helps about 50 paramedics plus EMTs handle 15,000 calls each year at IFFD.