ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Have you ever heard sirens and looked out your window to see both an ambulance and a fire truck, but no fire? We looked into why that is.

Here’s a question that came up in our newsroom: “why do fire trucks sometimes respond to medical emergencies along with ambulances?”

The Rochester Fire Department explained how dispatchers determine if a fire truck should join an ambulance in responding to an emergency. It all depends on how serious the situation is.

When the 911 center gets a call about a medical emergency, dispatchers ask a series of questions to determine how to prioritize the incident. The fire department is dispatched to calls that come in as a priority one or two.

Priority one means that someone’s life may be in immediate danger. Priority two calls still require a quick response but are typically not considered life-threatening. These two types of calls can also include things like trouble breathing, trauma, overdoses, and situations that call for CPR, essentially anything that can put someone’s life at risk.

Fire trucks carry some medical supplies like Narcan, tourniquets, and small oxygen tanks to help EMTs. News10NBC has reported extensively on issues with ambulance staffing in the past. Having the fire department on hand for top-priority medical emergencies gives EMTs backup.

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