Can you get a link to the article about the guy trying to break up the fight? Here is the preview for it:
Here you go:
http://www.kansas.com/201/story/106639.html
Stabbing response illustrates quandary
Shortly before 6 p.m. on Saturday, Rob Thurman pulled into a convenience store at 25th and Hillside for a 2-liter. He saw two women swing wildly at each other inside.
He briefly separated the women. Then, he said, one stabbed the other.
Thurman dialed 911 for help at 5:58 p.m. By 6 p.m., Wichita firefighters "checked close." They had the scene in sight.
But, Thurman said, while he and others frantically waved to firefighters to come and help LaShanda Calloway, the firefighters didn't move until the Kansas Highway Patrol arrived. Calloway later died at a hospital.
"They sat over there in that vacant car wash lot," said Thurman, adding that he repeatedly told the 911 dispatcher the suspects had gone. "There was no imminent threat.... I don't understand why it would take so long.... That girl's life could have been saved."
Perhaps, say local fire officials. Firefighters are trained to be the first medical responders. But they don't have the means to defend themselves, so it is policy for them to "stand off" until police secure an area -- which could
steal time from people who have none to spare.
No one wants to see fire and EMS crews attacked. I sure don't.
But Thurman says, and I agree, that public safety officials ought to review this policy to see what can be done to squeeze precious minutes off response times.
In this case, firefighters radioed that Calloway was code blue, at or near cardiac arrest, at 6:04, six minutes after the call.
"That time can feel like an eternity," said Wichita Deputy Police Chief Tom Stolz.
Wichita Deputy Fire Chief Mike Rudd said the department has had the stand-off policy for 10 to 15 years. And for good reason. "Nationally, we've just had a lot of crews injured when someone was still on scene."
~more at link~