The following is a letter from the Northshore Fire Department published on their Facebook page:
We want to inform our community about changes in our staffing and services that may affect you. It’s crucial to understand the difference between ALS (Advanced Life Support) and BLS (Basic Life Support) services.
ALS provides a higher level of care, including advanced medical interventions like IVS, administering medications, cardiac monitoring & intervention, and advanced airway management.
BLS focuses on essential life-saving techniques such as CPR, wound care, and basic airway management.
In the past, our district had provided three ALS units available every day.
Unfortunately, due to a staffing crisis, beginning tomorrow we will have only one ALS unit for the foreseeable future. This is a significant reduction in the services available to you.
Why does this matter? 46% of our emergency calls overlap, meaning that there will be delays in getting ALS care since it will need to come from another district. Our union members understand the importance of timely and quality medical care, and we want to be transparent about these changes.
While our union members are working tirelessly to provide the best possible service, we want to remind everyone to stay vigilant and take basic first aid courses to be prepared in case of emergencies.
Your safety and well-being are our top priorities, and we appreciate your understanding during this challenging time. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out. Together, as a community, we can navigate these changes and continue to prioritize the health and safety of everyone in the Northshore Fire Protection District Stay safe,
Northshore Firefighters
JAFF Local 5111
Essential Workers during the pandemic told to “keep waiting” for those Cost of Living wage increases, meanwhile the CEO of these Counties and Medical Corporations seem to be making even more money than before. An people wonder why we have staff shortages of skilled workers?
Why was this article written by the UNION instead of written by the chief of Northshore Fire Dept? Even volunteer stations have a paid chief. I wonder who it is? It’s the chief’s job to go to the Board of Supervisors.
It doesn’t even say on their website who the chief is or who the leadership of this fire department is. https://www.northshorefpd.com/
There’s not even and org chart on their website. That doesn’t really instill public confidence.
Don’t have what you need to do your job? Go up the chain of command until you get the results you need. If a firefighter determines the fire station doesn’t have the resources they need, the protocol is they ask their superior, the chief. If the chief doesn’t have a solution, the chief brings it up the chain of command to the Lake County board of supervisors and board of supervisors can’t put it in their budget or get the proper grants they need from the County, then the BOS brings it to state leaders.
What I want to hear about is what these “leaders” have done to ask for help if they are so short staffed.
Staffing is the department head’s responsibility. If there is a staffing change he or she absolutely knows about it, along with the BOS. They too have to be notified of staffing changes.
Also, there is a state wide shortage of paramedics that are qualified fire fighters. This plays a huge role in staffing shortages.
Let’s face it, our communities haven’t kept up with the costs of these services and are in no financial state to pay these QUALIFIED indaviduals and keep them from going 50 miles away for double the pay.
Why did the first black fire chief retire so quickly in Lakeport? He lasted barely over a year. Mendo and Lake have lots of turnover in their civil staffing for “personal reasons”… Maybe the leadership in these depts aren’t so great…
You can have the best coach in the game, the players won’t follow them you get turnover.
Unless you want to gut the upper staff…
I think you are over looking a cultural reckoning. Lake has lots of abnormal folks wondering around. Many folks, like in Mendo, come to places like this to hide, avoid taxes and slip under Johnny law man’s radar. Why are we surprised that Lake and Mendo can’t staff civil service jobs?
Yep, Lake County has always been a place where outlaws and ex-cons seemed to gravitate. The “abnormal folks” as you describe them is a very relative description. What appears abnormal in one environment is perfectly normal in another. The county of Lake has no real attraction for highly trained and or well educated professionals. So from a small pool of qualified people comes a small amount of qualified employees. It appears that Mendocino county is following in it’s neighboring county’s decline. The scenic beauty of both counties is no longer the attraction and lure it was. Who wants to raise a family in an area that is becoming more impoverished and crime ridden every year?
It is a self inflicted wound, even if unintentional, by the locals and policies within the county. The outside world will visit these area if these areas became inviting to visit by educated and above board types. Lake and Mendo are lucky they are in a populated state like CA with lots of wealth and grant access. There are plenty of ways to make this area more attractive if that is the actual direction the community wants to go in. I don’t believe the community wants or prioritizes being attractive to the world or to entice outsiders to this area. Mendo and Lake have more natural beauty than most of Socal. So don’t blame the absence of natural beauty for why no one would come here.