Wake-up Plymouth Township
Jan. 15, 2025 PLYMOUTH VOICE.
Plymouth Michigan News
OPINION
After years of subterfuge public safety in Plymouth Township is once again at the forefront.
What many people don’t know is that despite the disingenuous claims of the township officials over the years, they do not have the level of fire and emergency medical service so many believe still exists. They won’t understand the level of misinformation they’ve believed until they need the emergency services, they thought they could count on.
The end of the delusion is near.
Firefighters are saying enough is enough. They’re tired of township officials claiming the fire department staffing and ambulance response times are adequate, when they are not. They fear for their safety and that of the residents, victims of an impersonal agency.
The major news agencies are picking up on the disquiet and alarming story.
Rank firefighters, senior officers, fire department union officials and citizens are all speaking out after an incident last month revealed fire department staffing levels could have cost elderly couple their life if police officers were not there in minutes to save them – when the nearest fire station one half mile away was empty.
The issues have grown in intensity and reached a boiling point.
Over the years Plymouth Township firefighters have faced some extraordinary obstacles while trying best to do their job and serve the community. Nothing much has changed.
OBSTACLES
In a similar incident like the one that occurred last November at the Bradbury Park Homes, wherein township police rescued an elderly couple from a burning home before firefighters arrived a grandmother at the swimming pool at the same complex, literally across the street from Fire Station number one, died when she fell into the pool after suffering a heart attack in front of her 4-year-old grandchild. The first ambulance to respond from Beck and Territorial roads had only three staffers, and five were needed to provide the needed airway care required to save her life. The advanced airway procedure she needed also requires equipment only available on an Advanced Life Support ambulance. Paramedics from Huron Valley Ambulance did their best to help, but without the correct equipment and the necessary staff, this woman lost any chance she had to survive.
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When the Board of Trustees closed the Lake Pointe Village Fire Station 2 in 2012 officials proceeded to hire on-call volunteers to work at the two remaining fire stations on a full-time basis to remedy the staffing complaints.
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In 2013 a fire at the Lake Pointe Village Apartments, located about 350 feet from the closed Lake Pointe Fire Station, destroyed several apartment units, despite the help of needed equipment and manpower from both Northville Township and the City of Livonia.
Defending a disastrous response, then Fire Chief Mark Wendel pleaded to Township trustees to increase the current staff of 12 to no fewer than 25 to handle the current workload and number of calls.
Wendel reminded the board members that there have been no capital purchases of any sort for the fire department in more than 5 years. He noted that the current fire trucks are from 1989 and 1992 and are no longer cost effective to operate and have failed on several occasions when responding to emergencies. The trucks, Wendel said, no longer meet basic safety requirement. According to Wendel there were only six firefighters who initially arrived at the blaze, four full- time and two part-time firefighters.
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The fire started in the basement of a home on Dogwood Court in the Lake Pointe subdivision. The homeowner said a telephone call from his home alarm company woke him from a sound sleep and alerted him to the danger. He and his wife were sleeping upstairs when the call came at about 3 a.m. informing him that the fire department had been notified and advising him to get out of the home. The alarm company had received a signal from his basement smoke alarm, the resident said, although he never heard any warning.
With only four firefighters on duty at the two remaining open stations in Plymouth Township, fire personnel immediately notified the Northville Township Fire Department and requested help. Both Plymouth Township stations are several miles from the Lake Pointe subdivision where their fire station was closed as a cost-cutting measure. Lake Pointe is the township’s largest subdivision with some 850 homes.
En route from the Beck Road station, the brakes on one 20-year-old Plymouth Township fire engine failed, making the drive to the fire scene treacherous.
The Northville Township Fire Chief received a report from his lieutenant that the delay of the second Plymouth Township engine was due to a brake failure, said it was several minutes after his units arrived that the second Plymouth Township engine finally arrived. There were three fire fighters there who couldn’t do anything.
Exacerbating the situation, the engine from the Ann Arbor Road-Haggerty station stopped working almost immediately after arriving at the resident’s home. Because of the vehicle failure, and delay of the second truck from the Beck Road station, firefighters hooked hose lines to hydrants, according to fire department reports of the incident, and had to use hand held fire extinguishers.
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In another emergency that followed, a roofing contractor that suffered a spinal injury remained trapped on top of a home, unable to get the specialized hospital care necessary because the Plymouth Fire Department no longer owned a shared ladder truck needed to move the man.
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The serious problems concerning up to date fire engines, ladder trucks and fire department ambulances were remedied in most cases by the past administration with grants and board approved new equipment, but inadequate staffing and the issue with long dangerous response times still linger on and place the community at risk. During that time six additional paramedics were hired, and several paramedics retired
CARDIAC ARREST & DEATH
Medical experts and national standards state there are virtually no chances of survival for a patient in cardiac arrest after 6 minutes – a time after which all body organs have stopped. Experts say 6 minutes is the determinate time limit in 99 percent of cases of patient survival.
In another documented case help came too late for a unresponsive male in Lake Pointe when the rescue squad arrived 10 minutes after a 9-1-1 call. This incident was not an isolated case, according to official reports.
Decades ago, Plymouth Township opted to use a private ambulance company based in Ann Arbor. Since these rigs are also on call throughout Ann Arbor and South Lyon, if they are busy or on-call there, the response time that could mean life or death, a full-recovery or crippling aftereffects of an injury or illness is lost.
Over the years Huron Valley Ambulance Co. (HVA) has come under fire, facing increasing criticism for failure to adequately respond to calls for service within the City of Plymouth and Plymouth Township. Plymouth Township has relied on HVA for main line patient transport for more than 34 years initially operating on a handshake agreement crafted with former Township Supervisor Maurice Breen.
In 2019, and 28 years without a contract of defined terms of performance, the Plymouth Township Board of Trustees finally caved-in after continued criticism and entered into a 2-year agreement with the emergency transport supplier, one that has since been renewed. Those officials who supported the agreement claimed the HVA contract allowed township paramedics to return to their stations sooner so they are available to respond to other calls.
Fire Department personnel has long complained and continue to document the questionable performance of the established free-standing charitable 501(c)(3) non–profit township contractor. HVA can and does charge for transport, including non-emergency and wheelchair van transport.
Fire officials that favor eliminating the HVA contract say the township is well qualified to handle their own transport-a plan that is said to likely generate an estimated $500,000 annually, and claim HVA regularly breeches the response time clause and frequently reports not having an ambulance unit available. Almost all neighboring communities do their own transports.
RESPONSIBILITY
The Plymouth community Fire Department is charged with first response to emergencies within the boundaries of Plymouth Township, which include fire, emergency medical services, vehicle extrication, and natural and man-made disasters for the plus 28,000 residents, industry and three expressways. In addition, one firefighter is assigned as their inspector who is responsible for reviewing and approving site and building construction plans in addition to conducting fire code safety inspection of all business in the Township.
In the case of a fire, The National Association of Firefighters (NFPA) defined standard is to assemble 15 firefighters on scene within eight minutes. American Heart Association and NFPA recommendation for the minimum required personnel for an emergency cardiac care response is four firefighter/paramedic’s and 240 seconds travel time. Since the reopening of Station 2 the fire department once again meets that standard when sufficient staffing is available.
It’s time for the Plymouth Township Board of Trustees to wake-up and take responsibility, listen and face the long-standing pattern of denial regarding fire department performance and their agreed-to supplemental ambulance transport before they needlessly lose another resident or citizen because not-enough paramedics are able to arrive on scene, or are just too late.
Plymouth Voice.
