LINK. THE NUMBER OF TOTAL FIRE CALLS FOR NEW SMYRNA BEACH WENT DOWN FROM 117 IN 2006 TO 104 IN 2007. Interesting, the dollars of property loss for structural fires were the same as the at risk number, just as in 2006. For the moment we must assume that structural fire losses are reduced proportionately, i.e. 15 rather than 17, which would translate to a little less than one house fire for each of our four stations every three months. However, it could be as low as seven or eight because the dollar value at risk is about 3/5th of that in 2006. It is only about $3 million and not $5 million as it was in 2006. Last year when we asked for the accident reports, they were redacted and the City wanted to be paid for watching the reporter if he showed up to read the 17 one-page reports involved. The County just faxed the report referred to below, at no cost.

Now, when we return to the med/EVAC numbers, we find that they are simply not believable. As one posting on the bulletin board (people's blog) states, they are running one call for almost every two structures in the City. This is an illogical number even under the criterion of new math. It is also illogical to think that the citizens of New Smyrna Beach are 25% or 30% sicker than either the citizens of Port Orange or Edgewater. We had almost 5000 calls, while Edgewater had only about 3000 and Port Orange with 2 ½ times the population had only 7000. Attached as a second

LINK is the incident report from the house fire in the County that has been the center of some controversy because none of the personnel on either of the two fire trucks at the scene felt that it would be beneficial to spray water on the fire.

Last, we are perplexed as to why the local fire departments are permitted to buy ambulance type vehicles since none of them is authorized to transport medical or injured patients to hospitals. We speculate that there is an on-going effort to discredit the County EVAC service by suggesting that the cities can do it more efficiently and cost effectively. Keep in mind that EVAC is subsidized by the County because billables do not equal its receivables. Individuals, when they pay, and third party payers do not cover the cost of providing the service. Taxpayers would feel the pinch much more if the cities took over. The reason for their interest, we speculate, is that they expect cuts in personnel unless they can figure out how to generate more demand for their services, or in this case the appearance of more work. We do not believe that it would do so because they already send a fire truck to medical calls, needed or not. In many cases, like traffic fender benders, they either send more than one vehicle, because they are simply bored or believe they should show the flag. We believe they should not buy ambulance capable vehicles unless and until they convince the County to give them authority to transport people to hospitals. By the way, New Smyrna Beach has owned such a vehicle since 1993, and we do not know if it has ever been used for its intended purpose.