Since the early 1970's at the inception of pre-hospital emergency medicine the Franklin Fire Department has played a vital role in providing emergency services to our community. The fire department operates a fire based emergency medical service and until recently was the only fire department in Johnson County to operate its own ambulance service. Currently the fire department is the only career department that offers advanced life support ambulances staffed with firefighter/paramedics in Johnson County. By doing so we are able to provide the highest level of care to our citizenry as well as being able to assist other communites in Johnson County in the form of mutual aid.
In 1998, the department upgraded its level of care from Basic Life Support / Advanced EMT, to that of Paramedic.
Initially the paramedic program was started with three firefighter/paramedics each assigned to A, B, & C shifts. With so few paramedics available to provide 24 hr. coverage it was necessary to require an off duty paramedic to return to work in the event another of the shift medics were scheduled off during vacation or sick days.
Since 1998, the department has grown from (3) Nationally certified EMT/Paramedics to (8). We are currently staffing (1) civialian paramedic per (12) hour shift. The majority of our (46) firefighters are cross trained as EMT's.
In the past year our department has responded to over 2,500 calls for EMS
EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES
STATION 21 - 2004 Horton Ambulance STATION 22 - 2004 Horton Ambulance,
SQUAD 22 -1997 Int. Heavy Rescue CHASE 21 - 2005 Ford Expedition |