Tokyo firefighters on the brink of collapse as emergency calls surge

Emergency calls come in to the general communications center of the Tokyo Fire Department in the Otemachi district. Yuji Masuyama Rescue workers in Tokyo say they are on the brink of collapse as they struggle to keep pace with the emergency calls made during the seventh wave of COVID 19 cases and the scorching heat.

On some days in the capital in July, about 95 percent of the ambulances in operation had been dispatched to transport infected patients or heatstroke victims to hospitals for medical care.

There are still days when I can't return to my fire station between when I arrive there in the morning for work and well past midnight, said a rescue worker at the Tokyo Fire Department.

When the ambulance arrives at a hospital, it is inevitably called to its next location to pick up an emergency patient.

The rescue worker said that they have to work 20 hours straight without time for a short nap.

The worker stops at a convenience store for meals in the middle of emergency runs.

The worker said if I have no time to eat, I have no time to pass on information about the patient or to disinfect medical equipment and supplies.

A high-ranking official at the Tokyo Fire Department's general communications center in Otemachi district, Yuzo Fujino said the green lights showing that an emergency call for an ambulance has been made rarely turn off these days.

Fujino said that based on all of my past experiences, things that normally do not occur now are happening on a daily basis.

Computerized maps for emergencies show that most ambulances are already responding to calls.

The hectic atmosphere has continued from around 8 a.m. until close to midnight since July.

Fujino said that the emergency call system can't be stopped. The staff are working hard every day. The response time of ambulances has slowed because of the huge influx of emergency calls.

According to the Tokyo Fire Department records, it took an average of 12 minutes and 6 seconds for an ambulance to reach the location where the emergency call was made. It was almost double the average of 7 minutes, 20 seconds for all of 2021, and was close to double that.

In both 2021 and 2020, a daily average of around 2,000 ambulance runs were made in the capital.

There were 3,274 ambulance runs and 3,188 ambulance runs on July 1 this year.

Those numbers were close to the record of 3,382 set on July 23, 2018, during a heat wave in the capital.

On July 18 and 19 there were more than 3,000 ambulance runs this year.

To deal with the heavier workload, the Tokyo Fire Department has called on reserve vehicles to supplement the 275 ambulances that are regularly used.

There is a hurdle added to labor shortages. Firefighters were asked to handle ambulance duties because of a lack of rescue workers.

Another problem is that rescue workers are not immune to COVID 19.

Of the 18,600 or so workers in the Tokyo Fire Department, 1,538, or close to 10 percent, were confirmed to have been infected in July. Those who came in close contact with their infected colleagues were told not to report to work.