La Verne’s own respond to crises

photo by Adam Omernik

Holly Mickity of San Dimas came to La Verne last Thursday to pick her son up from soccer practice when her dog, Lucky, fell through a hole in the chain link fence around the watershed behind Bonita High School. The La Verne EMT responded to the unusual call at 6 p.m. and soon after Mark Mickelsen, on the team for more than a year, came up the ladder with Lucky to a thankful Mickity.

by Max Zänker
Staff Writer

The California wildfires, which destroyed more than 3,600 residences and killed 22 people, kept La Verne’s firefighters and paramedics busy as they supported other units in San Diego and San Bernardino Counties.

Eight members of the crew were sent to fight the wildfires at the front for two weeks.

Dave Benson was one of them; he coordinated the deployment of a Sikorsky helicopter in San Bernardino. Benson, a trained pilot, stayed for 10 days at a local base camp.

“The people there were just incredible,” he said. “They supported us with whatever they could.”
Proudly, he showed a photo of the big helicopter in front of a huge firewall.

“They had about 25 helicopters there,” he said. “I was responsible for the connection between the government and the private contractor that owned the helitanker.”

Sam Dominick Jr., another member of the La Verne emergency crew, went to the San Diego area right after the fire.

“We did the cleanup, cut down trees and bushes for five days to allow the residents to move back in,” he said.

The citizens of La Verne were less threatened by the fire and its local effects.

“(Because of) the ashy air, we had more asthma specific calls, but that’s about it,” said Captain Jeff Peterson.

The wildfire took the firefighters and paramedics away from their families for an extended period.

But working 48-hour shifts was nothing new to them.

“Being a firefighter and a paramedic is more than a job, it’s a lifestyle,” Mitch Fowkes said. “We give up a lot and pay a high price, but the reward is that we can help people every day.”

After their 48-hour shift, the paramedics are off for 96 hours. And even in their free time, most of them wear pagers, so that they can always be called to work.

“Even after years, the job is still an adventure,” Peterson said.
Benson feels the same way.

“Adrenaline definitely plays a role,” he said.

But the drive of adrenaline also brings problems.

“During every call, you have to stay keyed up, mastering your senses and awareness,” Peterson said. “We are very progressive (with safety rules) in California, but people still die in this job.”

The adrenaline also takes its toll on the paramedics’ sleep habits.

“For the first seven to nine years, you have a lighter sleep, and it is probably not the best thing to have to wake up all the time,” Peterson said.

Mark Mickelson, who is in his third year as an EMT, faces the same problem.

“I still have problems sleeping at night,” he said. “Sometimes I feel like I don’t sleep at all. At the beginning, you are very afraid of missing a call.”

When a night call comes in, which happens, on average, one to two times a night, the paramedics and firefighters will be out of their bed and in their car within two minutes.

“A normal person can’t do it,” Peterson said.

The day starts for a paramedic at 7 a.m., with checking the ambulance and all its equipment.

At 8 a.m., the captain holds a briefing with the departing night and the arriving day shift.

Most of the paramedics work out in the department’s weight room after the briefing.

At 10 a.m., the firefighters have to go on inspections of local businesses, which require a fire safety check once a year. “If we don’t have any inspections, we often give station tours to primary or kindergarten classes during that time,” Dominick said.

After lunchtime and household activities like shopping, firefighters and paramedics start their daily training.

“There is no required amount of training we have to absolve,” Dominick said. “But you can always improve your medical skills.”

The crews, he said, drill on things like pre-hospital trauma or pediatric courses until 5 p.m.

“Afterwards, we have free time to handle things we missed because of calls,” he said.

The firefighters and paramedics spend about two years working the same shift with the same colleagues.

“The guys become our second family,” Peterson said. “Sometimes we get to know each other as good as we know our spouses.”

The citizens of La Verne appreciate the work of the Fire Department.

“Many times, people we have saved show up here and bring us cards, pies or cookies,” Dominick said. “And during the wildfires, people set up signs with ‘Thank you firefighters’ along the streets.”

The terror attacks of Sept. 11 changed the public’s opinion of their protectors.

“Before Sept. 11, people respected us,” said Benson. “But the attacks put a public focus on what we are doing and on what we have to face everyday.”

The nature of the job also brings along that the paramedics might have to face accidents of people they know, like close friends or even their own family.

“If I had a call involving my kid, I would at first freak out,” Peterson said. “But then I would tell myself that this is just no option. Freaking out won’t help anybody, so you have to do your job.”

For every call of a medical emergency, the watch LVFD commander sends out one ambulance with two paramedics and one engine car with four firefighters and a large amount of equipment.

The crew will arrive on the scene within two minutes and provide first aid and medical treatment on the way to the hospital.

The City of La Verne has four medical units and two departments, one responsible for the north and one for the south of the city.

The education to become a paramedic takes about a year.

First, the applicants have to formally train as an EMT, which takes six month.

Within those six months, the students also do internships at hospitals and ride-alongs with paramedics at different fire departments.

After becoming an EMT, the applicants can take part in a paramedic program, which is offered by many colleges.

This education contains three and a half months of full time studying, where the students spend eight hours a day in the classroom.

Following this is one and a half months of hospital internship, where the EMTs observe and participate in the emergency and operating rooms.

Then, the students spend two and a half months at a fire department, participating in all kinds of calls under the supervision of the paramedics.

With a final exam, the students end their education, obtaining the state paramedic license.

At which time, they can then call themselves paramedics and go out on the streets with the signal on, hurtling to the next scene to help the citizens of the community to which they are committed.