Niels Tangherini will now have two 24/7 ambulances to supervise, as the MOFD has made a change in the way it staffs its ambulances. The result will be an ambulance in Orinda that will be fully staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Orinda will soon have its own 24-hour-a-day ambulance, thanks to a change in the way the Moraga-Orinda Fire District (MOFD) staffs its vehicles.
In the past, the only 24-hour ambulance was based in Moraga, but now each city will have its own dedicated full-time emergency vehicle. The change in structure will also cut costs and improve emergency services.
The upgrade is a result of MOFD moving toward a new model of operation called the single-role paramedic program. Instead of one ambulance in Moraga being staffed with firefighters and paramedics, now each ambulance will only be staffed with dedicated emergency medical personnel.
In the past there was one 24-hour ambulance in Moraga, cross-staffed with firefighters and paramedics.
MOFD Vice President and District 5 Director Craig Jorgens said that cross-staffing led to issues when a responding fire truck couldn’t transport a person to the hospital and would have to wait for the ambulance from Moraga.
MOFD Fire Chief Jeff Isaacs said the operational change will help with issues of availability for both ambulances and fire engines that sometimes were complicated by cross-staffing. “This process allows us to staff the ambulance 24/7 and provide a higher level of care to the citizens of Orinda by having a 24/7 dedicated ambulance in the city,” he said.
As for the financial side, staffing single-role paramedics (or EMTs) is more cost-effective, said Steven Danziger, director for MOFD’s District 3 and second vice president for its board of supervisors.
“These people that we’re hiring, they do not go to fires, they do not go to rescues,” said Danziger. “And they don’t get deployed when there’s fires in other areas. So they cost less, and as a result of that, we can have more service to Moraga-Orinda.”
Isaacs said that the current situation for MOFD means firefighters’ primary role has been acting as paramedics. Creating focused roles, therefore, allows personnel to focus on their stated roles, which is “a good way to save the district a little bit of money and provide an increase in service to our residents.”
An ambulance supervisor position has also been added to the district through the new program, and the first onboarding class for the prospective paramedics commenced at the end of September.
Niels Tangherlini is MOFD’s new ambulance supervisor, brought on in July and bringing 35 years of paramedic experience to the role. He retired from the San Francisco Fire Department in 2024, after 30 years of service with the department.
MOFD’s Rescue 1 Foundation, launched in 1977, “exists to provide funding and support for innovative efforts by MOFD,” said Tangherlini. He said those innovations include support of a video laryngoscope program, the launch of an ultrasound program, and the deployment of a first of its kind stroke detection device.
Tangherlini emphasized the importance of focusing on projects that MOFD can tackle to help area residents: “How do you look at a community you serve and think, ‘what might be missing?’”
He noted that emergency medical services in the Orinda-Moraga area have historically been on the cutting edge, and there has been a strong desire to maintain that status. “We’ve got an amazing department here,” he said.
Candidates for the single-role program are subject to a two-week onboarding process designed to provide classroom instruction, as well as establish hands-on clinical experience and familiarity with typical protocol.
After candidates clear that requirement, they head into a field evaluation phase to gain supervised experience with emergency calls.
There are currently four paramedics going through training, and MOFD plans to also hire four EMTs as well. “We’re hoping to have (the Orinda ambulance) up and running in early December,” said Isaacs.
MOFD and the United Professional Firefighters of Contra Costa County, I.A.F.F. Local 1230, have agreed to collaborate and maintain an ongoing labor and management committee to monitor the progress of the paramedic program, implementing single-role EMTs and senior single-role paramedics.
When it comes to questions from area residents about how the program will change emergency response, “Ambulances are going to get there quicker now,” said Danziger.
While the new program does mean two less firefighters on duty, Danziger pointed out that the local demand for emergency calls isn’t usually fire-related.
“Here in Moraga-Orinda, we don’t get a lot of calls where we need all our firefighters,” said Danziger, emphasizing the differences in need between larger nearby cities and the local area. Mutual aid agreements with other nearby agencies, for both fire and emergency medical assistance, also help MOFD close gaps in response, depending on the area that needs it, said Danziger.
Additionally, cities around the Bay Area are turning toward a single-role model for their paramedics, said Danziger.
Jorgens noted that the program was developed through several board meetings and negotiations with firefighters, with the process taking over a year.
Echoing Danziger’s point that there are more calls for emergency medical assistance than for fires, the increased number of potential responders in Orinda has “been a long time coming,” said Jorgens. “We’re increasing ambulance coverage dramatically.”
