Prop 2 vote was a mistake; minutes matter in medical emergency

As a former Anchorage fire chief, I was disappointed to see the recent failure of Proposition 2. Proposition 2 proposed funding for two additional ambulances (Medic 81 and Medic 82) for the Anchorage Fire Department, ambulances that are sorely needed in our sprawling and aging community.

While the geographic size of Anchorage has not changed in the last three decades, the demographic makeup of the residents within its boundaries is shifting dramatically. We are getting older. That shift has some noticeable impacts, particularly for health and emergency service providers.

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The Anchorage Fire Department (AFD) uses data to decipher service demand and adapt operations to meet the needs of Anchorage. From 2002 to 2015, ambulance responses from AFD have increased 72 percent, with a 27 percent increase just in the last five years. What does that mean? At certain peak times, all available ambulances are in active use. If you call at that moment, you will be waiting for an ambulance to finish a service call before they can respond to your situation.

Time is the enemy and an extra minute can be the difference between life and death. For example, there is a 10 percent decrease in survival rate for every minute that your heart is stopped prior to receiving CPR, and our responding crews extend the advantage for patient survival by being proficient in "pit crew" high- performance CPR and early defibrillation — two proven interventions for survival from cardiac arrest.

AFD is currently in the top tier of resuscitation outcomes in the U.S. and likely in the world; however, in order to not go backward, the 27 percent increase in transports mentioned earlier must be met with additional ambulances and, of course, the additional firefighters to staff them. Our goal for response time to cardiac arrest calls is to be at the patient within four minutes of being dispatched, 90 percent of the time. In 2016, our average minute response time was 3 minutes, 48 seconds. However, that time will increase and successful outcomes will decrease if we fail to meet community demand for ambulance services.

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A radio campaign against Prop 2 suggested that funding the medics working in the proposed new ambulances was an avoidance of the tax cap and made the proposition too expensive. It included an intriguing anti-endorsement by four former mayors, three of whom employed the exact same funding mechanism for fire stations, fire trucks and ambulances in the past. That funding practice has been employed and approved by voters nine times in the past 20 years, under Mayors Wuerch, Mystrom, Begich and Sullivan, and thankfully so. AFD ambulances are staffed by the world's best professional medic staff, something we should all be proud of and thankful for.

I urge those who opposed Proposition 2 to contact AFD or the municipality to learn more about the community need for additional ambulances and to obtain answers to any questions you might have about funding those units. We must give the Anchorage Fire Department the resources it needs to continue providing world-class medical response services to our families, friends and neighbors.

Craig Goodrich is a former Anchorage Fire Department chief and a veteran of 40 years in firefighting and emergency response.

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