Firehouse helps staff with Spanish
Mel Meléndez
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 23, 2006 12:00 AM


It's a simple verb-tense change from ¿Toma usted insulina? to ¿Tomó usted insulina?

But it can mean the difference between life and death if misused by Emergency Medical Technicians.

" 'Do you take insulin?' and 'Did you take insulin?' are not the same," said Phoenix Fire Captain Larry Contreras, a Spanish-immersion instructor. "So pronouncing them right is critical when working with diabetic clients. Never forget that improper verb usage can be lethal."

Contreras, coordinator of Phoenix Fire's Spanish Immersion Program, reiterated that point during a three-hour Spanish class at Fire Station No. 52. The $3.7 million, 14,000-square-foot south Phoenix facility opened last week off Baseline Road and 42nd Place, becoming the city's second Spanish Immersion Firehouse.

The station will feature teams of firefighters and EMTs where half the workers or more can communicate in basic Spanish. It highlights a national trend by police and fire departments that now scramble to hire or train Spanish-speaking employees to better serve Latinos, the largest minority group in the United States.

First-responder teams with Spanish-speakers have swiftly become a necessity in Phoenix, where fire stations each annually average between 1,200 to 4,000 calls - nearly 75 percent of them medical emergencies.

"So many of our medical calls often involve monolingual Spanish speakers," said Contreras, who four years ago helped create the Spanish-language program. "But you don't always have the time to track down a neighborhood kid to act as an interpreter, nor is it always appropriate depending on the client's health condition."


City backs español
Station No. 52 joins Laveen Village's Spanish Immersion Firehouse No. 58, signaling the push for bilingual emergency services in southwest Phoenix, which has experienced explosive growth. But it also signals a commitment by the city to have half of its firefighters become basic Spanish speakers within 10 years, officials said.

"Our Spanish-speaking population is growing because we're a border state," Fire Division Chief Ken Leake said. "We would be doing our community a disservice if we didn't attempt to communicate better with everyone."

Many Phoenix residents also seem to understand the importance of training firefighters in Spanish to improve residents' safety.

"This is a wonderful idea, because when someone needs help they need to be understood," said retiree Maria Walsh, a 22-year south Phoenix resident. "I'd love to see more police and firefighters that speak Spanish."


A novel approach
While most fire departments encourage employees to train in Spanish, Phoenix Fire is one of the first in the nation to offer in-house Spanish training to on-duty firefighters and EMTs, officials said. About 200 of the city's 1,700 firefighters are certified in Spanish, with more than half of them trained on site.

"The only other fire station with a similar program is in Prince William County, Washington, D.C. and they based their program on ours," Contreras said. "We went out there to help them start their program."

Phoenix firefighters that complete the four-month program can take the city's Spanish certification test to add $75 a month to their $40,000 annual starting salaries. But those in Contreras' class of 20 students seem focused on the ultimate prize: improving their communications with clients.

"I'm loving this class," said Station No. 52 engineer Jeff Conway, a nine-year firefighting veteran. "You need to be able to ask things like, 'Is there anyone left inside?' at a fire, or 'Where does it hurt?' on an EMT call, and be understood. Otherwise, people can die. It's that simple."

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