Aging Baby Boomers Change Firefighter Training

Updated: March 14, 2008 04:03 PM
By Jenn Karlman
WBAY abc

Aging Baby Boomers are forcing local firefighters to change the way they train for their job.

"Firefighting is the meat and potatoes of our job. It's what people think of when they think of a firefighter," Lieutenant Nick Craig of the Green Bay Fire Department said.

But in Green Bay the job description is changing.

"We fight fires a little bit, but most of our job is emergency medical calls."

Over the last decade, emergency medical services calls are up more than 20 percent.

In 2003, 73 percent of 911 calls were for medical emergencies such as heart attacks. Fire calls accounted for five-percent of 911 calls.

Two years later, EMS calls increased by three percent while fire calls decreased. And last year, of Green Bay's nearly 6,000 emergency calls, almost 80 percent were for medical reasons and less than three-percent were for fires.

"Green Bay is an aging city. It has a lot of Baby Boomers in it, and that population is getting older," said Craig.

And as it gets older, health-related problems go up. Therefore, so does the number of EMS calls.

It's a shift that's forcing the fire department to make changes.

Of Green Bay's seven firehouses, four have a permanent ambulance. But all fire engines now carry emergency medical supplies.

"Just about everyone on staff is medically trained," Craig said.

As for their "meat and potatoes," Craig acknowledged, "We're not getting the hands-on practice that we had in the past, so we're doing a lot more fire training as well to keep our skills up."

And Craig expects the department to continue adjusting as the city ages.