You know that strapping young fella wearing the blue South Davis Fire District uniform? He's really two people.
If he's putting out a shed fire, he's a firefighter paid by the fire district. If he's driving a heart attack victim to the hospital, he's an emergency medical technician paid by the South Davis Ambulance Association.Most Utah cities have combined fire and emergency medical services. But in south Davis County the interlocal, public, fire district handles fires, and the private, separate, ambulance association handles emergency medical calls.
An employee of one entity is also an employee of the other, and how much each pays him depends on what he spends his work time doing.
From time to time, South Davis Fire District board members have talked of bringing firefighting and emergency medical services together under the same roof, but ambulance association members generally like having their own organization and have resisted the move.
So instead of combining services, the fire district's board is working with association officers to at least write an agreement formally spelling out the relationship between the two, which up to now has been based on handshakes.
"All (the agreement) does is spell out the responsibilities of each entity," said acting Fire Chief Terry Graham (who is also a member of the ambulance association).
Board Chairman Jerry Larrabee, the mayor of Woods Cross, said the primary reason for the agreement is to resolve liability issues between the two entities, a subject in legal limbo right now.
"We were just doing some housekeeping, and this was one of the items," he said.
The fire district, created in 1981, provides fire service to North Salt Lake, Centerville, West Bountiful, Woods Cross and parts of Davis County. Its board comprises the cities' mayors and a county commissioner.
The ambulance association was formed in 1949, when Davis County was providing fire service to the area. The association's five ambulances are housed in the fire district's fire stations with no charge to the association.
Midvale and Draper are two of the few Utah cities with arrangements similar to south Davis. In Salt Lake, firefighters who are also emergency medical technicians or paramedics respond to emergency medical calls (for which they are paid by the city), but actual transport to the hospital is handled by the private company Gold Cross Ambulance.
Salt Lake fire Capt. Jeff Stansfield said his department is looking into bringing ambulance service in-house.
"It's really become the movement in the country to get a more consistent, smooth delivery of services," he said.
(By the way, not all of the approximately 60 south Davis firefighters are strapping young fellas. Some are older fellas, and three are women.)