Philly Faced Citywide Medic Shortage During Row Home Explosion

Paramedic says the city running out of medics is a growing problem

At the time of Monday’s row home explosion and collapse in South Philadelphia, all of the city’s emergency medical units were already out on calls.

Sources tell NBC10.com the city ran low on available medic units more than 10 minutes before the explosion and collapse that hurt eight people -- one critically -- and destroyed three homes along the 400 block of Daly Street.

Four medic units were dispatched to the scene following the initial 911 calls. Two were South Philadelphia-based units which arrived six minutes after being dispatched. Another, from the same neighborhood, arrived at the scene a minute later. But the fourth unit did not make it until 18 minutes following the dispatch. That unit, Medic 25, is based in the Strawberry Mansion section of Philadelphia.

Medic 25’s response time is double the national standard of nine minutes, as set by the National Fire Protection Association.

Later that morning, when officials on scene requested two additional medics, dispatchers advised there was only one unit was left, to cover the entire city.

“Be advised we only have one medic unit available in the city. That was Medic 20 from the Northeast,” the dispatcher can be heard saying on radio recordings provided by PhillyFireNews.com. Medic 20 is based at Comly and Academy Roads in Northeast Philadelphia -- nearly 20 miles from the South Philadelphia scene.

Moments later, an EMS official tells the dispatcher to “make all medic units sitting at a hospital for more than 20 minutes available.”

Witnesses describe seeing the most severely injured victim sitting on a sidewalk for 10 minutes before being treated by paramedics. A contractor working on a hot water heater inside 428 Daly Street, the home where the explosion happened, suffered severe burns to 22-percent of his body. He was listed in critical condition at Temple University Hospital’s Burn Unit all week. He's since been upgraded to fair condition.

“He was probably waiting there about a good ten minutes at the most, maybe a little more,” said Eric La-Salle, who helped walk the man down the street. “A lady that was in a house had come out and asked him if he needed anything, and he was so confused, I don’t even know if he was fully conscious.”

La-Salle said the man had serious burns, cuts and was bleeding as he sat dazed following the blast. He added that once crews arrived, they quickly helped the contractor.

“Once they got there, everyone was tended to immediately,” La-Salle said.

The medic shortage on Monday also delayed response times for other calls throughout the city.

Computer dispatch data obtained by NBC10.com shows it took 28 minutes for a medic unit to respond to an unconscious and unresponsive man at 18th and Shunk Streets in South Philadelphia. Medic 39, the unit dispatched, is based in Juniata.

Responding to a trauma incident at Philadelphia International Airport at 2:27 p.m. Monday, Medic 9B, based in West Philadelphia, didn’t arrive until 30 minutes after being dispatched. In this case, a 24-year-old man had fallen more than 6 feet.

Officials from the fire fighters and paramedics union says these outages are happening more often. Joe Schulle, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters and Paramedics Local 22, says another medic outage happened again on Tuesday around 11 a.m.

“Whether we’re out of medic units or we have a couple of medic units available in the city is really not the issue, it’s the response times,” Schulle said. “So once you start getting above the national average and you start talking about 10, 15, 20 minute response times, obviously the outcomes of some of these emergencies are not going to be good.”

Local 22 says the city’s 50 medic units went on 20,000 more runs last year than in 2006 – leading to, in the union and paramedics’ eyes, potentially deadly consequences.

“Critical patients die. We don’t have enough resources to get from point A to point B to save people who need it,” says one veteran paramedic who spoke with NBC10 on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “It’s not uncommon going from West Philadelphia to Northeast Philadelphia and Northeast Philadelphia to South Philadelphia, which a response time could be a half hour to 45 minutes.”

This paramedic says overtaxing the system is also wearing down the medics and causing some to burn out.

“Especially when the city is stressed out getting medic units on location, they then put the emphasis and the pressure on the medics…to recover after our call and get right back on the street for another call,” the medic said. “Medics are stressed...you’re having more people sick, injured on duty…emotional issues people have.”

If medic units are unable to respond to a call, fire fighters are sent to offer assistance, according to the union. Each fire ladder and engine have crews trained in basic life support, able to perform CPR, stop bleeding and use an automated defibrillator.

But only medic units are allowed to transport a patient to the hospital and paramedics are trained to give advanced life support like breathing intubation, administer medicine intravenously and provide trauma care. Schulle says the paramedics and medic units also have all the proper equipment to perform those duties.

NBC10 made multiple requests to speak to the Philadelphia Fire Department about the medic shortage and were referred Friday to the Mayor's Office.

"The Department utilizes a data-informed model to anticipate force needs as well as having operational plans in place in cases of extreme emergency," Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Everett Gillison said in a statement.

Deputy Mayor Gillison says the city's Office of Emergency Management has plans for activating additional staff and resources during mass casualty incidents.

"Our Administration has invested quite a bit of resources to ensure the proper equipment, training and personnel are available to serve the citizens of this City," he wrote.

Paramedics say the city needs to add at least 25 additional medic units to alleviate the pressure – whether part of a full medic unit or as a fully-trained paramedic on a fire engine or ladder.

“We do things with minimal resources that we have and we do it to the best of the job we know how to do,” the paramedic says. “It’s a chaos. It’s a collapse of the system and people are going to suffer.”

NBC10's Lu Ann Cahn contributed to this report.


Contact Vince Lattanzio at 610.668.5532, vince.lattanzio@nbcuni.com or follow @VinceLattanzio on Twitter.

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