The Fire Department provides Emergency Medical Services (EMS) at the EMT-basic level. The only recent change is that Paramedic-level service is now fully deferred to Brunswick County, who already has the established responsibility to provide medical services at that level. By realigning Fire Department staffing to the EMT-basic level, it no longer requires our firefighters to be in use when responding to non-life threating calls (note: with some exceptions), and allows staff to focus more heavily on Basic Lifesaving services.
The largest portion of medical-related calls are for Basic Lifesaving needs; for which EMT-basics provide the initial lifesaving services like CPR, Narcan administration, breathing treatments, and hemorrhage control.
Additionally, not requiring the higher paramedic certification greatly expands the available field of employee candidates, as Firefighter EMTs are more common than Firefighter Medics. The Town does not want to risk compromising the Fire Department’s primary responsibility of responding to fires, because there is a lack of available staff due to unnecessarily high medical certification requirements.
With the Emergency Medical Dispatching (EMD) currently use in Brunswick County, 9-1-1 calls are prioritized and dispatch the appropriate resources when they are needed, where they are needed. The Oak Island Fire Department continues to offer fire response / heavy rescue / and EMT-basic level service in a courteous, professional manner.
