Rural FD gains medical response role
Montana’s Ferndale Fire Department was designated a Quick Response Unit to reduce rural EMS delays, allowing fire crews to answer medical calls and cut ambulance wait times reported. The move reflects a broader trend toward cross-training fire and EMS teams in underserved areas.
Ferndale Volunteer Fire Department was formally certified as a Quick Response/Qualified Response Unit on Feb. 13, [2026 ems1.com], a change prompted after Chief Shawn Devlin recounted a nearby cardiac arrest where an ambulance arrived about five minutes after initial dispatch while the station sat less than 300 feet from the [scene ems1.com]. The department’s service area covers about 71 square miles overlapping Lake and Flathead counties, and that geography contributed to previous delays when ambulances were dispatched from Bigfork or farther [away ems1.com]; the church incident Devlin described underscores those short-distance/time-sensitive gaps in [coverage bigforkeagle.com]. Bigfork’s ambulances sometimes take roughly 20 minutes to reach the district, and when Bigfork units are tied up Lakeside crews can drive response times out to about 45 minutes, a span Chief Devlin warned can be fatal for internal bleeding or severe head [wounds ems1.com]. Volunteers who formed the QRU undertook EMT/EMR training to expand scope beyond previously limited services (CPR, lift assists, MVA response), and reporters noted the department had experienced several chief turnovers and relies on volunteers who hold full‑time jobs — factors that complicated the certification [push flatheadbeacon.com]. Chief EMS Coordinator Carolyn Snow brings more than 35 years of emergency‑room experience to the role, and both Snow and Devlin have pointed to the Feb. cardiac arrest as evidence that earlier CPR/AED and rapid hemorrhage control or ALS‑level interventions can alter outcomes in rural [settings ems1.com]. Local reporting says medical calls have dominated nearby agencies’ workloads — Bigfork Fire saw medical emergencies constitute about 80% of its calls last year — and that operational strain, plus the QRU’s added training responsibilities, has produced “mixed feelings” among volunteers about workload and retention going [forward flatheadbeacon.com].
