Paramedics forced out from NFM fire headquarters

NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla.- Lee County paramedics have cleared out of local fire headquarters building.

The North Fort Myers Fire District is locked in a dispute with the county over payment for use of the fire building.

Lee paramedics left the fire house Thursday and will be located at a county building on Garden Street in the Suncoast community, 3.6 miles from where they were before.

WINK News asked the county if that could affect response times. They said not to worry, county officials are working on plan to make sure residents aren’t affected.

Lee County has never paid rent for the paramedics to stay at the fire house. Now it is offering $15,000 as payment, but the fire district board has not voted to accept that money.

As a former paramedic from Wisconsin, Terry Rice says he understands response times.

“Lots of time on emergency calls, seconds matter.”

He says North Fort Myers could be looking for trouble.

“The response times are going to be much longer. It’s just not a good way to run it.”

Rice thinks both the firefighters and paramedics should stay in the same spot.

“I think getting the paramedics to run out of the same station to keep the response times down, I’m willing to pay a little bit more.”

For 25 years it wasn’t a problem, but now, fire district officials say it is.

They say one of the problems is paramedics sometimes get medical-only calls in the middle of the night, but they wake the firefighters who aren’t called to respond.

The chief wouldn’t go on camera, but says the two sides are negotiating and he is hopeful the problem will be solved quickly.

There will be a meeting on Monday, between the fire district and Lee County.