No one's life appeared to be in danger, but all hands were busy as two crews checked vital signs, stabilized necks and backs and loaded five people onto ambulances. Some, including Brown, say that if the city cannot put enough firefighters on a truck, sending more trucks to the scene is the answer. As many as three vehicles respond now to some medical calls. But firefighters say the danger of sending more crews instead of increasing the size of each one is that in emergencies, a three-minute wait for reinforcements could make a major difference. Firefighters also object to taking the trucks from other neighborhoods, where emergencies could spring up in their absence.
Public safety is an emotional matter, and public officials are loath to seem indifferent.
So elected officials in Houston are limiting their arguments to how to pay for increasing staffing instead of questioning whether it is necessary. But others involved in the budget process are grumbling behind the scenes that while increasing staffing would be nice, they do not see it as a necessity. The National Fire Prevention Association is poised to adopt a new national standard of four firefighters per truck. An existing NFPA standard already recommends four, but the wording is ambiguous. The NFPA's members took a preliminary vote last month in favor of the standard, and it will be formally decided whether to adopt it this summer.