The New DEA "Thing" And What It Means For Wildland Fire EMS

We sit down with Joe Decker from Remote Medical Rescue and Dan Blaul from All Terrain Rescue to explain how REMS teams support wildland fire operations, why remote rescue is fundamentally different from city EMS, and what “hours of patient care in the woods” really looks like. We unpack the rule change, the cost and brick and mortar hurdles tied to multi state DEA registration, and why rapid deployments across the West don’t fit neatly into the current compliance model.

Then we get blunt about consequences: pain management, ketamine, narcotics, and benzodiazepines are not luxuries when you’re packaging a femur fracture, treating a seizure far from a hospital, or managing critical procedures in an austere environment. We also talk about moral injury for providers forced to watch suffering they could normally relieve, and why this could push the standard of care backward for firefighter safety and patient outcomes.

If you’re a firefighter, medic, medical director, or someone who cares about wildfire medical response, listen, share this with your crew, and help raise the volume with decision makers. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us what change would protect patients fastest?

Find the article here: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6301399 Find The Journeyman here: livetjm.com Find Minuteman EMS here: minutemanems.com Find Remote Medical Rescue here: remotemedicalrescue.com Find All Terrain Rescue here: allterrainrescue.org Blog 1 livetjm.com/blog/LIS4U8mscxKpEjHicSGq Blog 2 livetjm.com/blog/7NQcizXnQrwTkJJrmaFe