Spokane Highlights EMS-to-Fire Pathway
The Spokane Fire Department is highlighting that EMS comprises the majority of its total call volume, reinforcing the value of recruits with strong clinical backgrounds. The department's Community Assistance Response Team (CARES) program further illustrates the evolving role of firefighters as social service liaisons, with a mandate for “compassion, care, and connection.” This reflects a broader trend where experience in EMS is seen as a foundational pathway into the fire service.
- In 2024, the Spokane Fire Department responded to a record 54,312 calls for service, 82% of which were for Emergency Medical Services. - The CARES program was founded in 2008 as a partnership between the Spokane Fire Department and Eastern Washington University, utilizing social work students to follow up with frequent 911 callers. - Spokane's CARES team was recently expanded with additional social workers, a move funded by opioid lawsuit settlement dollars to better address behavioral health and substance use crises. - The trend of recruiting EMS professionals into fire departments is a national one, partly because it is often faster and more cost-effective to train a paramedic to be a firefighter than to put a firefighter through the lengthy process of paramedic school. - To address nationwide staffing shortages, the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) and the U.S. Department of Labor launched the first federal Fire and EMS Apprenticeship Program in 2025. - The Seattle Fire Department has a similar initiative called the Mobile Integrated Health (MIH) program, which provides enhanced services to frequent 911 callers and those with complex social needs. - In 2022, Seattle Fire also launched a Nurse Navigation Program in partnership with American Medical Response (AMR) to triage and divert thousands of non-emergency calls away from traditional EMS response.
