RICHARDSON – Richardson’s Fire Station 3 has a new shiny red Frazer ambulance on a Dodge chassis that recently arrived. It’s part of a five-year replacement schedule that is followed at every fire station in the city.
“We are very fortunate here where we have top-of-the line equipment across the board. We’ve got top-of-the line cardiac monitoring, we have power stretchers, power cots to move patients around. We can lift a patient in an ambulance with the press of a button rather than having to hurt our backs to lift the patients into the ambulance so it’s really great,” said David English, Battalion Chief of EMS, Richardson Fire Department.
When an ambulance is replaced, the old ambulance becomes a reserve ambulance that is used when front-line ambulances are out of service. Typically, a frontline ambulance has about 75,000 miles with an additional 20,000-40,000 miles added while on reserve.
The new ambulance is 14 feet long, which is two feet longer than the previous vehicle, and gives paramedics more elbow room to treat a patient. There’s also LED lighting on the vehicle and a Mobile
Electronic Power System (MEP), a generator that powers everything electronically.
The new vehicle has the capacity to provide space for not only the driver, but up to five people who may be treating a patient.
About 80% of the fire department’s call volume is EMS or medical-related. However, the ambulance does respond to many calls including structure fires, rescue calls and hazmat emergencies.
