Firemen see red on purple  Last updated 09:31 02/05/2014
firefighters, crash  EXPLOITED: Gone are the days of
firefighters just fighting fires, or attending emergencies like
the car crash pictured. They are increasingly being sent out to
medical calls and some volunteers feel they are not properly
trained and now feel exploited.  Relevant offers  Firefighters
have stopped turning up to some emergency calls as they become
increasingly frustrated at having to attend more and more
medical callouts to pick up the slack for St John Ambulance.
The cause is a memorandum of understanding between St John and
the Fire Service that has been in place since 2005, but was
fully implemented in December 2013 and is currently being
updated.  The Fire Service, which has a more extensive network
than St John, now co-responds to all "purple" or critical
incidents, of which St John receives about 11 per day.  It has
frustrated many of the Waikato's volunteer fire chiefs, with
some saying St John need to "get their act together".