Millstone EMTs: Response system isn't failing

Frank [Malanga], here are some facts. How dare you? How dare you malign the volunteers of Millstone Township and surrounding towns with your lies and misinformation? Why would you do this? Are you looking to enhance your career as a firefighter in Millstone when you have scared us into paying for a seven-day/24-hour paid fire department with your threats? We don't know the reason but we will respond to your lies in order to calm the fears you have attempted to instill into our fellow residents.

Millstone Township First Aid Squad can and has met the challenges for more than 50 years and will continue to do so along with our firefighters who we respect and work closely with.

No first-aid squad gets eight alerts. New Jersey State protocol says a squad gets two alerts and then the next closest squad gets toned out. This second squad is usually canceled as your local squad gets into service. At the same time, paramedics and state police are also on their way. There is no such thing as unanswered calls. All calls are answered.

"Can you hold your breath for 50 minutes?" What a ridiculous question and where does it come from? Are you now saying your wife waited 50 minutes? We are confused because your letter states she waited 25 minutes and in separate communications you stated she waited 17 minutes. What are the facts Frank? Which one is a lie? We cannot discuss your wife's call because of patient confidentiality. We hope she is fully recovered. But exaggerate the time she waited for drama's sake and scare us some more, why don't you?

The system is not failing. It has served this state very well as millions of satisfied patients will attest.

Body counts and intersections. This is another example of scare mongering. We don't have body counts. We do not even have one case of a resident dying because a call went unanswered. Do you have any facts or examples to substantiate your question as to "How many residents must die?" No you don't. It's just one more example of your attempt to terrify our fellow residents.

Your chances of surviving cardiac arrest in Millstone are exactly the same as the rest of New Jersey and even greatly improved if it is witnessed by a citizen who knows CPR, which is why we actively encourage all residents to take this important life-saving class.

How dare you insult us by saying we do not care. When was the last time you left your family at the dinner table, walked away from a holiday affair or got up in the middle of the night to go out in a snowstorm to help someone? Oh that's right you don't. We do because we care not because we get paid to.

You complained about response time. The facts are, they vary. You state paid firefighters can respond in one minute. Millstone is approximately 32 square miles and it can take your "beautiful" truck 10 minutes or more, which is well outside your six-minute window, to get to parts of our town.

Perhaps we should pay firefighters to stand on every street so they are not more than a minute away from everyone. Ridiculous, yes. But that's what you are implying and you have already stated our paid firefighters have nothing to do as it is. This is an insult to our paid firefighters who we are sure are busy doing what they have been employed to do.

You stated "five firefighter/EMTs sat in the firehouse and listened to the call" and "residents should visit the fire department and ask our career staff just sitting there." If you believe our career staff is sitting around doing nothing, which again is insulting, why are we paying them? Our taxes are already horrendous and you state we are paying for a service that is not needed?

Your solution to justify paying people to sit around is to demolish a functioning volunteer squad and get jobs for more career firefighters at the expense of our small town. As you are well aware that your solution would triple the taxes of each resident, not save money.

In closing, we agree with your comment that you should apologize. You should be apologizing to every volunteer, new or old, EMS or fire, because as life members of Millstone Township First Aid Squad we are appalled by your insults, blatant inaccuracies, threats and fear tactics.

Bob Broder

Tina Mitchell

Millstone