EMTs Katie O’Meara, Karrie Bradbury and Brian Schneider stand in front of the Southwick Fire Department’s latest apparatus, a new ambulance. (Photo by Hope E. Tremblay)
SOUTHWICK – The Southwick Fire Department (SFD) has a new ambulance to help residents in need.
The ambulance was ordered a year ago and put into service last week.
Fire Chief Richard Anderson said a committee, headed by Capt. Bill Fraser, worked for a year to choose the ambulance that would best meet the town’s needs.
“We looked at a lot of them,” said Anderson. “We chose this one, made by LifeLine, and the bid was won by Specialty Vehicles of North Attleboro.”
Anderson said the ambulance was custom-made for Southwick and cost $188,665.
“We updated the lighting systems and the heating system to make it more comfortable for patients,” said Anderson.
The new ambulance is also ready for a laptop.
“We got a grant for laptops from the state so we are equipping both ambulances with laptops,” said Anderson.
He said the laptops will connect with a data base and they can add patient information so when they go out on a call, they can connect to the database and pull up the patient’s history.
“This helps us to know the medical history of the patient before we arrive,” said Anderson. “It helps us give better care.”
The previous ambulance was purchased five years ago. Now that there are two ambulances in service, Anderson said they will rotate them to prolong ambulance life. Of course, he added, the number of dual calls has increased and both ambulances may be used at the same time.
Because of the increase in calls, especially during the day, Anderson recently hired three full-time EMTs and is planning to hire a fourth.
“About 64 percent of our ambulance calls happen between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. so we need a fourth full-time EMT,” Anderson said.
He added the cost of the EMTs is paid through ambulance fees.
“Since we added the full-time crew our response time during the day is now five or six minutes, which is a huge improvement,” said Anderson.
At night, the response averages around 14 minutes because the night crews are 100 percent volunteer.
“A lot of people are at home when we get the call and they have to get to the station then respond to the call,” Anderson said. “On the fire side, there are limitations during the day because people are at work. When there’s a major fire during the day, we may not have enough firefighters. We are lucky because we’re surrounded by some great fire departments, which we use and they use us.”
Anderson said the SFD is also lucky to have the support of the Southwick Fireman’s Association, which donated two power-lift stretchers at a cost of $12,000 each.
“Both ambulances are now equipped with those – we are very well equipped,” said Anderson.
The new ambulance was used to respond to a Christmas night accident where a driver crashed into a utility pole and tree.
Anderson said the next step for the SFD, he hopes, is to become a paramedic level department.
“Now we have the right equipment with the potential to be advanced life support,” said Anderson. “We are looking into going to the paramedic level so we bought the ambulance with those capabilities.”
