Chautauqua County Emergency Services Director Noel Guttman discusses challenges to today’s volunteer firefighters. P-J photo by Gregory Bacon

While structure fires have dropped over the decades, the need for emergency medical technicians continues to grow.

Noel Guttman is the emergency services director for Chautauqua County. During a presentation to the Chautauqua County Planning Board, he noted that in the county there are 40 fire departments – 37 of which are fully volunteer, one which is partially volunteer, and two that are career-based.

Guttman estimates that about 90% of all emergency calls in the county today are emergency medical service calls.

“I sort of jokingly say there are 40 EMS agencies that occasionally put out a fire,” he said.

Guttman noted that today building codes are better and safer building materials are being used. “The fires are on the decline, but people are always going to get hurt and need medical care,” he said.

But an EMS call requires a lot of time.

Guttman gave the example that if he responds to a call in Mayville and can transfer that person to Westfield Memorial Hospital and the hospital is not busy, a typical EMS call can run around an hour to an hour and 15 minutes. But if a patient needs to be taken to UPMC in Jamestown, that call can be two hours. If the patient has to be brought to UPMC in Erie, the call can take up to three hours.

But if an individual is employed, it’s difficult for companies to be able to let an employee respond.

“If you’ve got one employee running your business for you while you’re out doing something else, you just can’t let them leave,” Guttman said.

Guttman noted there are additional protections for government employees, so they’re more able to respond.

“We love to see DPF/DPW workers that are also a fireman because if they’re not doing those essential services that they need to for their job, they’re oftentimes available for the fire service,” he said.

Guttman said countywide there are about 300 EMTs and paramedics in the county that his office helps keep them trained and maintain their certification.

Guttman said a basic EMT will take about four months worth of classes and 10 hours of in-field time to become certified, while a paramedic takes about a year and a half, with nearly 1,000 hours of clinical time for certification.

Even so, Guttman praises those who are emergency medical technicians.

“EMTs are really the backbone of the EMS service, they’re that important,” he said.

Because of the need for emergency medical service and the shortage of available volunteers, there are three agencies that offer EMS. They are Chautauqua County EMS, Alstar, and Seneca.

Chautauqua County EMS is the largest of the three.

“We have almost 50 employees between all of our staff,” Guttman said.

Alstar is the oldest EMS, while Seneca is the newest. Seneca is based on the Reservation in Salamanca and Irving, and is used when the county or Alstar are unavailable.

Guttman notes that Chautauqua County EMS does more than just respond to calls.

“Its core mission is to support the 40 fire departments in the county with ALS (Advanced Life Support) and BLS (Basic Life Services) support,” he said.

Chautauqua County EMS provides the county fly-car and ambulance response, offers interfacility ambulance transport, and provides EMS education for both providers and the community at large.

One of the main purposes of the county Planning Board is to rank proposed capital projects. Those rankings are utilized by the county legislature when determining what projects to fund.

Guttman noted that the county Emergency Services is struggling with storage.

He said his office, the Sheriff’s Office and the county Health Department will be jointly requesting a new building to help protect equipment in Mayville.

Other challenges to the county Emergency Services is the constant need to upgrade equipment, future requirements for training, and aging fire training facilities in the county.