Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services Appreciation

Time is of the essence when it comes to fire and rescue services. Every minute, every second counts. For an organization like the Newton Fire Department to give its citizens the best chances of survival when an emergency strikes, it takes dedication, training, a strong will and up-to-date technology.

Prior to becoming the chief of Newton Fire Department, Jarrod Wellik worked at a volunteer organization. While a volunteer organization can provide a very professional service to its citizens, Wellik said there is a time factor involved that can be challenging to meet. Responding in a timely manner is crucial.

“Every minute that you don’t receive care, 10 percent of your survival chance goes down,” Wellik said in a recent interview with Newton News. “We talk about a response time of four minutes is kind of the average. If we get there in four minutes, you got a 60 percent chance of survival.”

Whereas, if individuals have to travel to the station from home and then respond, Wellik said that could double the response time. Using his calculations, an eight-minute response time could mean a person’s chances of survival are at 20 percent. Which is where having a full-time department sees big benefits.

Newton Fire Department is the only full-time fire/EMS department in the county. All the other departments are run and operated by volunteers.

Which is not to say that volunteer departments are not providing quality care to their citizens. But municipality-backed fire stations do have access to other advantages, such as more secure funding and regular opportunities for technology upgrades and advanced training.

“We maintain all of our people at a paramedic level, so all of our line staff are at paramedic level. Which means that’s the highest level of care you can get in the field,” Wellik said. “And that’s difficult for a volunteer organization just for the hours that are required to maintain that certification. To me that’s a big deal.”

It means better and more consistent timing, which is important to Wellik. When a fire starts, if given enough oxygen and enough fuel it could double its size every minute, he said. Newton Fire Department tries to get to fires early and quickly. Wellik recalled a recent fire in northeast Newton.

“There was a fire that started in a kitchen,” he said. “It took off right away, right out of the gate. We got there and knocked it down, kept the majority of the fire damage in a couple rooms. There was smoke and heat damage, but if you let that fire grow for another four to six minutes — that makes a big difference.”

Currently, the Newton Fire Department is made up of 27 total staff members. Wellik said 24 are sworn fire staff, which include himself as the fire chief, his assistant fire chief, two shifts of seven firefighters/paramedics and one shift of eight firefighters/paramedics. There are three, non-sworn civilian staff.

Most cities have some form of law enforcement, roads and streets department, public works, et cetera. Historically, fire departments were developed to have an agency that responds to all hazards in a community that are not handled by another department. Generally, that is what fire departments are still expected to do today.

Political subdivisions throughout the state are required by law to provide fire response services to their citizens. Up until last year, EMS was not considered an essential service for political subdivisions, Wellik said. The governor signed a law in 2021 that allows EMS departments to access more funding streams.

When it came to EMS services in the past, it was not always fire departments nor ambulances responding to emergencies.

In the 1960s and 1970s, EMS services were commonly provided by the funeral homes, Wellik said. Back then there was not much field care done back in that time period. The basic goal was to pick someone up and give them a ride to the hospital laying on a cot in the back of the ambulance or hearse.

“That’s kind of where it all started. Then it kind of got to be, hey, if we could provide some sort of care in the field, you may be able to stabilize a patient and save more people,” Wellik said. “It’s always been about providing care as early as possible when someone is injured.”

Eventually some cities would create an EMS division while others added it on to their existing fire departments. It was just another emergency function they could provide. Responding to emergencies takes a lot of skill and hard work from many agencies, not just fire departments or EMS providers. Dispatchers and police play a role, too.

“It’s a system,” Wellik said.