City firefighters being trained as medical first responders

DETROIT (AP) - More than 600 Detroit firefighters have received certifications allowing them to also operate as medical first responders.

Mayor Mike Duggan said Thursday at a news conference that firefighters are being cross-trained as part of a Medical First Responder program that was launched in 2014.

Firefighters have responded to more than 30,000 medical runs since April 2015. Detroit firefighters arrived at life-threatening emergencies before ambulance crews about 12,000 times last year.

The training also has helped decrease the city’s average response time for life-threatening medical emergencies to about 8 and half minutes. The Detroit News reports that the average response time was close to 20 minutes when Duggan took office in 2014.

The national average is 8 minutes.