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Austintown collaboration ambulance arrives
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Austintown Fire Chief Andy Frost III, left, and Randy Pugh, vice president of Lane LifeTrans, stand by a new ambulance. LifeTrans has joined with the fire department to serve the Austintown community.
Fire department, ambulance company collaborate
By Kalea Hall
AUSTINTOWN
A longtime goal finally was reached in Austintown over the weekend.
It didn’t come with flames down the side, but it did come with the same raging excitement for the new, gleaming blue ambulance now run by the Austintown Fire Department and Lane LifeTrans.
“Here’s something that is a plus for both a private and public company,” said Randy Pugh. vice president of Lane.
The fire department and ambulance service announced in October that they would join forces as the first collaboration in Mahoning Valley and in Ohio. In fact, as far as Pugh knows, fire departments and ambulance services in California are the only ones to have tested this collaboration.
“So far, everything is good,” said Andy Frost III, chief of Austintown Fire Department.
The first time the ambulance was out on the road answering calls in Austintown, the main hub for Lane, was 8 a.m. Saturday. Austintown began a contract with Lane in the 1980s. Pugh said the company wants to test out the collaboration with Austintown first before expanding it to other communities.
“We are very open to that,” Pugh said.
The ambulance, designed by both the fire department and Lane, has both the star of life and firefighter symbols stamped on it. With the firefighter symbol in red and the star of life in light green, the color Lane uses on all of its ambulances, the collaboration is visibly obvious and eye-catching.
“We didn’t want it to look like a Christmas tree,” Pugh said why they went with the blue color for the ambulance.
Although the design is an essential part of the collaboration, the important piece is the additional employees the township receives and is reimbursed for by Lane.
The department moved three part-time firefighter/EMTs to go with a Lane paramedic on calls. Now, the department has an extra firefighter on duty and a paramedic who can help at the scene. With two other firefighters retiring, the department will have to fill five part-time positions.
Before the ambulance’s arrival, Lane had two ambulances to work in Austintown, which was difficult when there were multiple calls.
“You get that third call, and that third car is going to be delayed,” Pugh said.
Nick Reed, Brandon Wirtz and Keith Rosser will be sworn as full-time firefighter/EMTs at the township meeting Monday
“We are trying to make sure our residents are taken care of,” Frost said.