Calif. Fire Chief Defends Agency`s Response During Protests
Feb. 06--BERKELEY -- Fire Department paramedics who waited 23 minutes for a police escort during a Dec. 7 protest before responding to an emergency call concerning a man who later died followed correct procedure, the city's fire chief said Friday.
Alvin Henry Jones Jr., 63, of Berkeley died of natural causes Dec. 9 at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, as reported this week by the news website Berkeleyside.
Fire Chief Gil Dong said his department's response to the medical emergency was correct and in accordance with nationwide best practices.
"When we are dispatched to a call, and the call involves violence or potential violence, we request law enforcement to respond and make sure the scene is safe for first responders -- paramedics and EMTs," Dong said in a telephone interview Friday.
Jones had collapsed, apparently as a result of an undisclosed medical emergency, at a residential building on Kittredge Street. The city's emergency dispatch service received a call at 6:39 p.m. Dec. 7, according to the Fire Department.
A protest was in progress at the time in the area of the Kittredge Street building, and paramedics waited 23 minutes at the nearest fire station for a police escort in accordance with city protocol.
Paramedics arrived at Kittredge at 7:05 p.m., reached Jones at 7:07 p.m. and took him to the hospital, where he arrived at 8:31 p.m., 31 minutes after the initial call to dispatch.
Paraphrasing the basic EMT curriculum the Berkeley Fire Department uses, Dong said that "scene security is the first assessment that we do before providing patient care."
During demonstrations Dec. 6-8, "From day one, we saw rock-throwing, bottle-throwing, crowbar-throwing, breaking of commercial storefront windows," Dong said. "We had calls where someone got hit in the head by a hammer."
Over the years, "the Berkeley Fire Department has experienced assaults, fire vehicles set on fire, rocks and bottles and projectiles thrown in the People's Park rallies of the 1980s and 1990s," Dong said. "In L.A., in the 1994 Rodney King riots, firefighters were shot at in their vehicles."
Moreover, many people cannot tell paramedics apart from police officers by their uniforms, he added.
He said the 23 minutes it took police to provide escort to paramedics was not excessive given the level of police activity in the city that day.
Mayor Tom Bates, City Manager Christine Daniel and Berkeley Police Department communications officials could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.
Contact Tom Lochner at 510-262-2760. Follow him at Twitter.com/tomlochner.
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