VISTA — Vistans can expect their reinstated ambulance to roll out on Sept. 24. Fire Chief Jeff Hahn provided City Council with a progress report regarding the restoration of a fourth ambulance during an Aug. 21 meeting.
City Council unanimously approved the reinstatement of a fourth Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulance on May 9. The ambulance was taken out of service in 2011 due to the economic recession.
While the economy has improved, Hahn noted that the restoration of the fourth ambulance was needed because two of its three ambulances were working beyond the recommended usage.
The fourth ambulance would also help increase response reliability.
Since City Council approved the additional ambulance in May, Hahn said they had hired six new firefighters/paramedics. They graduated from the academy on Aug. 30 and made a beeline to their field orientation phase.
“They will do several shifts for evaluation and orientation to our system,” Hahn said.
“Then we’ll have our graduation and badge ceremony on Sept. 21. Sept. 24 will be the first day we’ll actually get them in their seats, and we’ll have that fourth ambulance in service, so we’re looking forward to that.”
Hahn noted some other fire training statistics including how their department accumulated roughly 27,000 hours of training during the 2016-2017 fiscal year.
While new members took part in these hours, existing members of the fire department also took part in continued training.
“Training is a big part of what we do,” Hahn said.
The badge ceremony will take place at Station 1 at 4 p.m. Sept. 21.
