Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service
[4][5] On 14 October 1874, City Council proposed its first money referendum to eligible voters, which included an order to obtain a $25,000 line of credit towards purchasing fire engines and apparatus, as well as to construct buried underground water tanks along Main Street for firefighting purposes.
(The only people who were entitled to vote at this time were the property owners, many of whom were also responsible for organizing the fire brigade.)
[5] In 1976, each district of Manitoba had an Assistant Fire Commissioner appointed to provide training, investigation, inspections, public education, and other services.
[5] In 1919, the WFD would adopt a two-platoon system, no longer requiring firefighters to live on job, 84 hours (3.5 days) a week.
[8] On 20 June 1959, Winnipeg would be the first in North America to receive a three-digit emergency number for police, fire, and ambulance—Dial 999 (eventually changed to 911).
The next year, on the first of March, the WFD adopted a four-platoon system, granting firefighters a 42-hour workweek (two 10-hour days, two 14-hour night shifts in 8-week cycle).
In 1982/1983, the WFD introduced the use of first responders to start assisting the Winnipeg Ambulance service on medical calls.
The ICP are unique to WEMS as a training level during the department's in-house, nationally-accredited Advance Care Paramedic Program.
All stable patients not requiring interventions, advanced skills or being repatriated to a Personal Care Home are not transported by WEMS but by Stretcher Service of Manitoba who operate under contract.
[20] Since 2009, the Main Street Project Paramedics are responsible for on-site assessment and monitoring of all IPDA clients,[21] as well as providing a first line access to care for the clients of the drop-in shelter, the detoxification unit and those in the transitional housing unit.
The EPIC paramedics provide non-transport medical assistance to common 911 callers, the Salvation Army building and other at-risk patients in the community.
When WFPS Paramedics respond to 9-1-1 calls and identify citizens who are at risk, they have the ability to fill out a referral to the EPIC program.
The EPIC Paramedics follow up on each referral and help the citizens gain access to proper medical care or other needed resources.
Initially, Winnipeg had a volunteer fire brigade that began in the city in 1874; the WFD was subsequently created in 1882.
[29] The WFPS Communication Centre is responsible for receiving emergency calls and dispatching of all ambulance and fire apparatus for the City of Winnipeg.
The IFT dispatchers are responsible for triaging and assigning this workload to the WEMS Transfer division, the WRHA Transport Team and Stretcher Service of Manitoba.
Meanwhile, the call taker may stay on the line until help arrives on-scene and will give pre-arrival instructions to the patient.
These include assisting/instructing the caller with performing Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), or instructing appropriate chest pain patients to self-administer Aspirin (ASA).
The booking and dispatching of ambulances and stretcher car services in the movement of patients between care facilities within the city's 6 hospitals and many clinics.
