The following graph shows the call volume for the Marion Fire Department: 

Please note that the number of medical and fire calls for both the City of Marion and Marion Township.

Citizens of the City of Marion and Marion Township have access to 911 for reporting emergencies. If the 911 call originates within the City of Marion, it will be answered by radio operators at the Marion Police Department. If the call originates in the Township area, the call will be answered by Linn County Sheriff’s radio operators.

Regardless of who answers the call, if the services of the Marion Fire Department are required, the dispatch information (location, type of call, etc.) will be given by radio paging or computer printer will be promptly relayed to the Fire Department.  Decisions regarding the type of department response will be made by the Fire Department Shift Commander.

All full-time Marion Fire Department personnel are trained to the Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) – Basic level. This means that they are able to perform the following:

• Basic physical exam
• Vital signs
• Patient packaging (splinting, applying a cervical collar, etc.)
• Baby delivery
• Defibrillate (shock) a patient whose heart is not beating due to ventricular fibrillation
• Assist a patient in taking certain medications (nitroglycerine, epinephrine for bee stings)
• Insertion of Combi-tube (to assist breathing)
• Monitor and adjust IV drip rates

It takes about 150 hours to be certified as an EMT-B in the State of Iowa.

The Marion Fire Department also employs 14 EMT-P’s (paramedics). In addition to the skills listed above, paramedics can perform the following skills:

Area Ambulance Service, based at Mercy Hospital in Cedar Rapids, provides ambulance service to the City of Marion and to most of Marion Fire Department’s township response area. In these areas, both Marion Fire Department and Area Ambulance Service will respond to a medical emergency. Marion Fire will perform initial stabilization and Area Ambulance will transport the patient to the hospital.

Since Area Ambulance Service also provides ambulance coverage for all of the greater Cedar Rapids metro area, there are rare occasions where an ambulance is not available for a medical emergency in Marion. To fill this gap, the Marion Fire Department and Area Ambulance Service have entered into a unique partnership. Area Ambulances has contracted with the City of Marion to house and staff one of their ambulances at Marion Fire Department. Currently located at Station 1, the ambulance is used when there is a medical emergency in the City of Marion or Marion Township and no ambulance is available. A Marion Fire Department paramedic will care for the patient throughout their transport to the hospital.

The Marion Fire Department currently employs 28 career personnel, 21 paid-on-call firefighters, and one part-time administrative assistant.

Full-time staff is broken down as follows:

• Fire Chief
• Assistant Fire Chief in charge of Operations
• Assistant fire Chief in charge of the Fire Prevention Bureau
• Captain (Shift Commander) in charge of Training Division
• Captain (Shift Commander) in charge of Medical Division
• Captain (Shift Commander) in charge of Maintenance Division
• Captain (Day Position) in the Fire Prevention Bureau
• 3 shift Lieutenants
• 18 shift firefighters

If no one is off duty, there will be a lieutenant and two firefighters at Station 1 (600 8^th Avenue) and the Shift Commander (captain) and three firefighters at Station 2 (3933 Katz Drive).  Minimum staffing is 6 personnel on duty.

Career and volunteer all carry pagers and will respond to large-scale events like structure fires, explosions, and other events that the on-duty staff would be unable to handle by themselves.