On-duty medic and fire units often staff Seattle sporting events and concerts, leaving coverage gaps

On Sept. 21, a sunny Saturday, fans filled Husky Stadium for the UW’s first Big-10 football game. Across town, the Mexican band Grupo Firme played to a nearly sold-out crowd at Climate Pledge Arena. As usual, firefighters and paramedics were on hand at the events in case of emergency; the city requires that event promoters pay for off-duty fire personnel working overtime on their days off.

On this day, however, the fire department took six on-duty neighborhood units out of service to staff the Husky game and concert: The Ballard paramedic unit, Northgate aid car, and engine companies from Queen Anne, Greenwood, Madison Park, and Crown Hill.

A KUOW investigation found that the Seattle Fire Department diverted on-duty staff to work special events 147 times between September 2023 and November 2024, leaving fewer units to respond to emergencies citywide.

Taking any of Seattle’s eight Medic One units offline could delay response times to life-threatening emergencies when every minute can matter, said a paramedic who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The risk is low, but the consequences could be great,” the paramedic said. Although all of the city’s firefighters are also trained as emergency medical technicians, and can perform basic life support measures, paramedics trained at Harborview and the University of Washington respond to all life-threatening incidents.

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Seattle Fire Chief Harold Scoggins acknowledged the department’s use of on-duty staff at special events.

“That's not what we want to do, because that complicates the whole system,” he said, pointing to the huge Seattle map on his office wall dotted with fire stations and medic units.

“We’ve got a webbed system here that's designed to get our folks to anywhere in the city in a certain amount of time,” and it leaves coverage gaps when neighborhood units go offline for special events, he said.

Scoggins blamed understaffing: Out of 89 paramedic positions, 35 are unfilled. The department is budgeted for 764 firefighter/EMTs and has an 11% vacancy rate for that position.

“We've been going underwater for the last few years, and it's just the gaps getting wider and wider and wider,” Scoggins said. Recruitment has not kept pace with an unusually large number of retirements, he said, and the department lost dozens of firefighters due to the Covid-19 vaccine mandate.

Seattle aims to have paramedics at critical incidents within 9 minutes 90% of the time in keeping with the national standard.

“We get there [in 9 minutes] about 80% of the time,” Scoggins said. “Even with that, we're the best in our region,” he said. “Could we be better? Yeah, if our staffing gets up and we keep the units staffed every day. Absolutely.”

It is difficult to gauge how taking medic units offline for special events affects response time given the numerous factors involved.

“Even when a paramedic unit is out of service, it doesn't mean no one is coming. There's an engine or a ladder or an aid car” on the way, Scoggins said, staffed by Seattle firefighter/EMTs, who can stabilize patients in emergencies until paramedics can arrive.

Only in the past few years have on-duty staff been frequently drafted for special event work. A 2019 city audit of fire department special event staffing found only off-duty firefighters and paramedics staffing ball games, concerts, and parades.

Scoggins said the fire department tries to use the city’s least-busy units for event coverage when needed. Ballard, South Park, and Northgate paramedic units are the most frequently taken offline to work special events, department staffing data shows.

The city requires fire personnel for event permits, with ratios based on size, location, and determined risk level. Contracts between event promoters and the fire department often stipulate a certain number of paramedics dedicated specifically to the performers and athletes, with other paramedics on hand for attendees.

“The Seahawks, for example — the NFL has a requirement where you have to have two paramedics dedicated, ready to go on the field, and another unit behind it, so that’s four [paramedics],” Scoggins said. Seattle paramedics are also required to meet before each game with the teams’ medical staff.

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Although medical emergencies at special events are uncommon, Scoggins said, “You need paramedics there. Because if you have that call that is critical… you need the right person with the skill set there to do it.”

Diverting on-duty paramedics to special events still does not sit well with some in the department.

“I think it’s a disservice to the city and its citizens,” said one Seattle paramedic who spoke to KUOW.

“Events are a large concentration of people all in one spot, but medical emergencies are extremely infrequent at them,” the paramedic said, estimating “maybe a dozen” cardiac arrests and other life-threatening incidents at the roughly 600 large events the fire department staffs each year.

“I don’t think that even begins to equate to the number of 9-1-1 calls that occur in out-of-service units’ areas while they’re at an event,” the paramedic said.

Analia Bertoni, who heads the organization Villa Comunitaria in South Park, was alarmed to learn that the nearby paramedic unit was one of the first to go out of service for special event coverage. Her organization serves the many Spanish-speaking immigrants in South Park, a lower-income neighborhood.

“We are a neighborhood that is crossed by many freeways, and we are isolated. We are the southeast, last neighborhood of the city,” Bertoni said, and the Duwamish River that runs alongside South Park limits access from West Seattle. That meant longer emergency response times before the city added a paramedic unit to the neighborhood in 2020.

The city’s 2025-26 budget adds an extra $6 million for the fire department to recruit 40 more firefighters over the next two years and train 12 paramedics annually, rather than the usual five trainees. However, all new Medic One recruits — even experienced paramedics — must first complete 10 months of Medic One training.

At that rate, it could take years to fill Seattle’s 35 vacant paramedic positions and prevent the fire department from taking neighborhood firefighters and medics offline to work ballgames and rock shows.

Have you experienced delayed paramedic or other fire department response times? Share your story with KUOW reporter Ann Dornfeld at adornfeld@kuow.org.