Fire Service gets ambulance for EMT service!
The National Fire Service is getting ready to pilot its emergency medical technician services in the west. As a part of its preparation, the Fire Service received two ambulances; a Ford E350 Ambulance and International 4300 Ambulance. The emergency response vehicles were transported by the U.S. Government on a C17 military aircraft from Charleston Air Force Base. Fire Chief Colin Gillett says that the ambulances will expand and improve the fire department’s natural disaster and other emergencies response capabilities:
Colin Gillett, Fire Chief, National Fire Service
Colin Gillett
“These two ambulances came about through the hard work and dedication from Mr. Archibald McFarlane from Belize Heroes. It is an organization working to help the national fire service in getting resources; trucks and things like that. We have been working with them for the last year and this donation came about starting about last august when we were discussing that we need to get our own ambulatory services for the national fire service. The two ambulances, one came from Forest View Fire and EMS in Virginia and the other one is from the DuPont Company in Virginia. They were donated to Belize Heroes who did all the work to get them here. So, we worked with the Denton Programme through the US MLO. This morning they came on a large military aircraft and we drove them off and brought them here. As you can see, the ambulances came with some training dummies which will be part of the training programme that we have organized for the next couple months. These ambulances are destined to go to the Cayo District in Santa Elena and San Ignacio where our training and coordination programme is going to occur for our firemen to become EMTs. Hopefully that will continue and they can become paramedics. For too long the fire department has only been fire. I believe there is a lot more they can do. Presently, we respond to all road traffic accidents but we respond in our fire trucks. We hope that the expansion to EMTS and paramedics will allow us to now expand and become adept in rescue. In the last couple days with all the water on the road and flooding areas, usually the fire department is the one who is at the forefront; one of the first responders and they are the ones who would help the people in case of fast moving water. So, our job is to get our firemen as trained as possible so that they would be able to give back more to the community”
Once the Airport reopens, the Belize Heroes travel to Belize to train the firefighters in E.M.T. services. In the past few years, six firefighters have completed specialized trainings in E.M.T. It is expected that the service may eventually be rolled out to other parts of the country.
