Wheeling Fire Chief Larry Helms estimates that 10 percent of the received calls by the department for medical/EMS service are not actual emergencies, and that percentage equals 300-plus through the first 10 months of 2020.
At this time, the WFD has responded to 3,279 medical/EMS calls, according to the department’s quarterly reports, and that is about 1,300 fewer than all of 2019 with November and December remaining on the calendar.
“There are times when it hurts the morale of the firefighters, especially when they see the same people over and over and over for a week or so,” Helms said. “But we follow up on those calls with our investigators, too, so they go talk to those people and help them understand that our service is for emergency services.
“The last thing our firefighters want to happen is that they are unavailable for someone who really is experiencing an emergency because they are tied up with a non-emergency call,” he said. “Now with the temperatures dipping down, people are going to be using space heaters and things like that, and we just hope they know how to properly operate those appliances. If the space heater is plugged in using an extension cord, the individual is taking a risk that they shouldn’t be taking.”
But Why?
Helms has been with the department 30-plus years, and he has been the chief for more than a decade, and he feels several factors are involved with the reasons why his EMTs are summoned erroneously. The closure of the Ohio Valley Medical Center and the city’s homeless population, of course, are two of them.
“When we had two hospitals in Wheeling, it seemed OVMC was more convenient to some while Wheeling Hospital was more convenient to others,” Helms said. “But not having the hospital in Center Wheeling has created more calls for us because some people can’t just walk to the ER. I do think some people took advantage of how close OVMC was to the downtown area because that’s where we see lower-income housing and the homeless.
“And we do have regulars that make calls for service at the same time of the day, and a lot of those folks do have illnesses,” he said. “But there are some who just want interaction with other people, or they are hungry and need something to eat.”
When Helms first became a firefighter for the Wheeling Fire Department, Ohio County’s 911 Dispatch Center was not operational, and cell phones did not exist either.
“Before 9-1-1 was established here, people really didn’t know whom to call right away, so what they did is find their own way to the emergency room,” Helms recalled. “There weren’t too many people in Wheeling who could remember 234-3711 to call the fire department back then. I also know that there were some people who did not know we offered EMS services.
“After 9-1-1 was initiated, though, people started using it when they needed the police, if there was a fire, or if someone needed immediate medical attention,” he said. “Plus, I think cell phones led to an increase in our calls because now anyone can call from anywhere. And let’s face it; we do have an aging population, and we have a high amount of homeless people, and those folks tend to need more care than others due to exposure and things like that.”
Here Comes COVID-19
The Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department reported Thursday 20 new positive cases, and that increases the county’s total to 586 with nine deaths. Thursday’s positive cases included four from long-term care facilities, and three were discovered during testing at West Liberty University.
Since the end of July when Ohio County had 254 positive cases and four deaths, Administrator Howard Gamble has reported 332 additional positives and five more county residents who have passed away.
“I think those numbers are increasing now because a lot of us are huddling back into our homes again, but a lot of it, I think, has to do with people being worn out with it all,” Helms said. “Wearing a mask is probably the biggest thing we could do to have a good impact on the numbers, but when you go to the grocery store and you see only 50 percent of the people wearing one, it’s pretty easy to understand why the numbers are going up.
“If you are wearing the face covering then you are protecting others from yourself, but if we all wear the masks, then we are all protecting each other,” he said. “But that’s not the case here, and that’s why I don’t go out to too many places. I see people refusing to wear a mask even when the store has a sign on the front door asking the customers to wear a mask.”
