NEWBURY — The fire company that covers Oldtown and Plum Island is changing the way it responds to ambulance calls during the day.
Protection No. 2 Chief Tim Wareham said he issued a directive early last month that mandates only the two firefighters/emergency medical technicians who are on duty to take the ambulance to the scene of a medical call.
The procedure had previously been to have any firefighter/EMT respond, a practice Wareham said sometimes resulted in having 10 or 12 people show up for a medical call.
Newbury's two firefighting companies — Protection No. 2 and Byfield's Protection No. 1 — are what are known as "call departments," which means that firefighters who are on the scene are also on the payroll for the time it takes to handle the situation.
Wareham said Protection No. 2 was sometimes paying for unnecessary personnel responding to requests for the ambulance.
"We can't afford to pay everyone who shows up," he said.
He said Protection No. 2 is backed up by Advanced Life Saving personnel from Newburyport-based American Medical Response, making the additional Newbury firefighter/EMTs redundant.
He said extra firefighter/EMTs can still respond, but it will be with the understanding they won't be paid.
Fire alarms and traffic accidents with possible injury will still be open to all members of the department, as will ambulance calls at night and on weekends.
The first responders during daytime ambulance requests can call in additional personnel if the situation warrants it, Wareham said.
He said the fire company overspent its budget in the fiscal year that ended last June 30, and he wanted to make sure that didn't happen again. He said the town adequately funds the fire company's budget, but that it is up to Protection No. 2 to properly allocate it.
The company currently has a full-time firefighter/EMT and a call firefighter/EMT assigned to regular business hours at the Morgan Avenue station. After the July 1 start of the next fiscal year, there will be two full-timers assigned to the station.
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