In 1871 the first ever official Fire Department was created and formally introduced into the Los Angeles area. The LAFD has had Emergency Medical Services be a part of the department for almost a hundred years. In the year 1927, the Los Angeles Fire Department added Emergency Medical Services into their program. A few years later in 1931, already six LAFD ambulances were stationed around the metropolitan and around the shoreside area. Originally the EMS program was linked with the Los Angeles Police Department, which meant whenever the police got a call the ambulances would be dispatched from the Receiving Hospital Department which alongside with them. Later on EMS was transferred over and were at firehouses and getting dispatched to calls
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This was the first step in introducing “dual-function” paramedic/firefighter which led to having 37 paramedic ambulances to be created and added alongside the department within just eight years. In the year 1983 the Bureau of Emergency Medical Services was created to improve hospital delivery care and also allowing paramedics to be promoted. This was only managed by just one person for the entire Los Angeles area which was extremely time consuming also not allowing for anything truly effective to occur. A year later in 1984 the BEMS was redone so that there would not just be one person in charge of everything but there would be six EMS districts and 3 senior paramedics were assigned to each one so that it would be an easier workload and also allowing to supervise how patients were treated and to make sure all EMS resources and activities were managed. Having dual function firefighter/paramedics increased a trifold within 1992 when “lead paramedics became firefighter/lead paramedics, paramedics became firefighter/paramedics, ambulance attendants became firefighter/ attendants, ambulance drivers became firefighter/drivers and EMS supervisors became captain/paramedics.”(Captain William Wells LAFD) LAFD no longer hires many if any single function
This was the first step in introducing “dual-function” paramedic/firefighter which led to having 37 paramedic ambulances to be created and added alongside the department within just eight years. In the year 1983 the Bureau of Emergency Medical Services was created to improve hospital delivery care and also allowing paramedics to be promoted. This was only managed by just one person for the entire Los Angeles area which was extremely time consuming also not allowing for anything truly effective to occur. A year later in 1984 the BEMS was redone so that there would not just be one person in charge of everything but there would be six EMS districts and 3 senior paramedics were assigned to each one so that it would be an easier workload and also allowing to supervise how patients were treated and to make sure all EMS resources and activities were managed. Having dual function firefighter/paramedics increased a trifold within 1992 when “lead paramedics became firefighter/lead paramedics, paramedics became firefighter/paramedics, ambulance attendants became firefighter/ attendants, ambulance drivers became firefighter/drivers and EMS supervisors became captain/paramedics.”(Captain William Wells LAFD) LAFD no longer hires many if any single function