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For fair’s fire and medical workers, it’s all about ... Being prepared
CANFIELD
Eight days.
Twelve-hour shifts.
Hundreds of calls, for everything from bee stings to heart attacks.
That’s life at the Canfield Fair for the fire, medical and emergency service workers who staff it – many voluntarily.
“We basically are a city within a city,” said Cardinal Joint Fire District Capt. Rob Tieche, who oversees emergency medical services for the district. “We are responsible normally for the entire fire district, but during the fair, we have to set up an entirely separate operation.”
Here’s how that works: The CJFD leads the effort and provides staff members, with help from many other agencies.
“It’s a big concerted effort, not only of the fair board, but of the Mahoning County fire departments. The Mahoning County fire departments sign up to do 12-hour shifts over the course of the fair,” said fair board president Andy Frost Jr., director of the fire and EMS, Red Cross, and medical divisions of the fair.
Preparations – during which workers must bring in all of the needed equipment, vehicles and medications – begin about a month before the fair begins.
Then, the week of the fair, fire-district workers must inspect some 400 things at the fairgrounds, including each and every stand.
Emergency responders begin covering the fair 24/7 starting the Tuesday before opening day, and they stay until the following Tuesday. At any given time, 10 to 20 people are working emergency response, and during the weekend those numbers might be higher.
Also, between 30 and 50 people trained in First Aid volunteer for the Red Cross, seeing between 600 and 800 cases at the fair each year.
“Our job here at the fair is to relieve the stress on the EMS, the paramedics and the fire so they are freed up to handle the more serious issues,” said Dr. Denise Bobovnyik, Red Cross medical director for the fair.
The Red Cross handles cases such as blisters, bee stings, sunburns and exhaustion.
“Some people just need to come in, have a glass of water and get out of the heat,” Bobovnyik said. “If we weren’t here, they’d be tying up the paramedics.”
For everyone involved, it’s a big undertaking, but fire district officials think they’ve gotten it down to a science.
“I think that what we do is very unique. We’ve been doing this for 10 or 12 years, where we have this tiered response system, and I think we’re close to perfecting it,” said Tieche.
What he means by a tiered response system is that ambulances don’t enter the fairgrounds; instead, emergency responders go out to calls on smaller carts that are fully equipped with all the supplies they need to stabilize a patient. The responders then assess the patient; in some cases, patients are transferred to ambulances outside the gates to be transported to an emergency room.
Emergency responders handle, on average, between 80 and 100 cases each year at the fair.
Matt Rarick, deputy chief for CJFD, took a Vindicator reporter and photographer for a ride on one of the response carts Friday. The carts make responses much more efficient, he explained, as he drove from one of the fairgrounds’ three emergency outposts to another. Another outpost is located outside, at the fair’s campground.
“The system works. Being able to get anywhere in the fairgrounds in two to three minutes, I think is phenomenal,” said Tieche. “It’s proven itself, and it’s one of those things we’re very proud of.”
During their shifts, workers see everything from heat-related conditions, to injuries caused by animals, to drug overdoses. With high temperatures and bigger crowds, the volume of calls increases.
“We have to be prepared for anything,” said Tieche. “We’re dealing with the same type of emergencies inside the fairgrounds [as outside]. ... Here, it’s happening in the midways, in the barns, or in a stand.”