SANTA PAULA : Council Expands Medical Role of Fire Department

Santa Paula’s volunteer firefighters may respond to all medical emergency calls, the City Council has decided.

The council unanimously approved spending up to $29,000 from the city’s reserve fund to pay the firefighters for the emergency responses.

Fire Chief Paul Skeels had asked the council to expand the volunteer Fire Department’s role in treating medical emergencies.

The department now responds to calls on injury victims.

But firefighters leave calls on other medical emergencies, such as heart attacks, to Pruner Health Services Inc., which operates the local ambulance, Skeels said.

Firefighters will also be trained to use defibrillating machines on heart attack victims, a service that is not provided by local ambulance attendants, the council decided.

The two technicians who staff the Pruner ambulance in Santa Paula are not certified to use defibrillators, said Steve Murphy, Pruner’s chief administrative officer.

In nearby Fillmore, volunteer firefighters are certified to use defibrillators on heart attack victims, as are firefighters in the city of Ventura.

Ventura County has approved but not yet implemented a program for county firefighters to use the machines.