Fire trucks respond for a number of reasons: The dispatch center in St. Charles County uses an Emergency Medical Dispatch protocol to assign calls. Depending on the severity assigned, a fire truck is sent because the medically trained crew can provide needed assistance to the two paramedics on the ambulance. No one truly knows how severe the call really is until they arrive on the scene. For your safety, we work from a premise that it's better to be safe and send apparatus than sorry that we don't have the man power on scene to take care of you. Man power is another reason fire trucks respond. Many patients are in locations or are of such a size that two people cannot get the patient to the ambulance. The stretcher alone weighs 90 lbs. This is a concern for the safety of fire/rescue crews as well as the patient.