WITH JOSHUA BRIGGS
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Joshua Briggs, 37, has been a member of the City of Santa Fe Fire Department for six years, and a paramedic since December 2006, when he graduated from the Emergency Medical Services Academy in Albuquerque.
SFR: So you fight fires and are a paramedic?
JB:
The way the fire department is structured, all the members of the Santa Fe Fire Department are at least EMT basics. People ask us, 'Why do I see a fire truck at a car accident or someone having a heart attack?' Twofold: one, personnel, more trained hands; and also many emergency scenes can be very dynamic situations; a motor vehicle accident can present a fire hazard. One of our missions is we try to protect life and the environment and the property-in that order. We're always concerned about helping people, but if we can keep the brake fluid from running into the lawns, we'll do that too.
In six years, have you seen a lot of changes?
There are ongoing changes. The fire service is always expanding, both in training and technology. With 9.11-I was a rookie when 9.11 happened-that added weapons of mass destruction to the world stage. We are all trained in responding to mass casualty incidents, establishing triage. And because of drought and fire hazard, the department is all trained, in at least the initial response level, to wildland firefighting, which has fairly distinct tactics and techniques compared to structural firefighting.
Has Santa Fe changed in terms of incidents?
There's been a steady increase. I was born and raised in Santa Fe, and in 1969, Santa Fe was quiet. Last year, we ran just over 10,000 calls, and we expect it to go up several hundred a year. There's definitely been an increase in certain types of calls. There are more motor vehicle accidents. There seems to be perhaps a little more gang-related violence. Most of the violence we see is caused by drug and alcohol problems, as I think it is in most cities. It happens everywhere. We also have a high retiree population and the elderly tend to have more complex medical histories.
You were the paramedic for the 16-year-old who was stabbed [on April 27].
That was probably one of the more stressful calls I've worked. I've had similar calls in the past in more of a supportive role, as an EMT intermediate, but one of the things you'll probably find universally in the fire service is that calls involving children are often the hardest and most stressful to the medics and fire service because it's hard to see someone just beginning their lives in that situation.
That was, generally, a very busy week for police and emergency responders: a stabbing, a shooting, a dry ice bomb. What's that like on your side of the equation?
There's no real predictability to it. We go through trends; you'll have quiet periods and times when it's really busy. Each of those have their own benefits and stressors; when you're busy, time goes by quickly and you're engaged in your work. Sometimes being slow can be discomforting because you're sitting around waiting for the pager to go off and that can be more anxiety-inducing. But when we get shifts that just run nonstop, it becomes tiring to some degree because you're basically running on adrenalin.
How long are the shifts?
We work 48-hour shifts: We come on at 8 am and get off two days later at 8 am, and then we have four days off.
When something like Virginia Tech happens, do you think about your own role in a mass emergency?
Whenever you see big stuff on TV, you tend-everybody, regardless of professional role-to Monday night quarterback. We could have done this, we could have done that. It's hard to have the same perspective as the people in the situation, but it's a good opportunity to look at what they did well and what they didn't do well, so that if we ever have a similar situation…unfortunately, in today's day and age, those types of events could happen almost anywhere.
There seems to be a general fear in the public about violence; is that valid from your point of view?
My personal feeling is that there's a lot of anxiety in the world right now due to the war in Iraq, political issues, gas prices going up, people worried about the economy. All of these things tend to make people a little more anxious, and that's totally understandable. I think, in general, people feel the world is less safe than it really is and I think the media has a large role in that. The Virginia Tech situation, for example: For a week, every single channel, every half hour, had an update and dwelled on the horror and the tragedy. Mass homicides have been happening for thousands of years; the likelihood of it happening to any given person is far less than being hit by lightening. I think people driving while talking on their cell phones put themselves at far greater risk than homicidal shooters will ever present to them.
What's something you would want the public to know about your work?
One of the things the public can do-and, unfortunately, it's an area where the public is often uneducated-is if you see an emergency vehicle, traveling with lights and sirens, pull to the right and stop as rapidly as is safe for you to do. We have people, it doesn't occur to them we're going somewhere. We may be going to a heart attack victim, or in the case of the 16-year-old boy, a stabbing victim, stabbed in the heart. Two or three minutes can make a huge difference in whether that person survives or not.
