Green Bay Metro Fire Department's EMS 1, a mini ambulance is 10 years old. The city is spending $90K for a new one. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Green Bay is getting an upgrade to a piece of equipment that officials say is valuable — especially when it comes to major special events in the city.
“It’s an important asset because it’s smaller,” Green Bay Metro Fire Department Assistant Chief of Operations Ray Fuiten says about the department’s mini ambulance.
It can go places a regular-sized ambulance can’t.
“It allows us to go off-road with it. If we would need to on some of these marathons, it’ll go down the trail,” Fuiten says.
You’ll even see it on the concourses at Packers games.
“It has emergency lighting, an emergency siren and a horn, so we can put our lights and sirens on just like a normal med unit,” Fuiten adds.
He says the UTV ambulance has everything a regular ambulance has.
“We have a bench seat here where our paramedics or EMT will render care back here,” he says.
In the past, if someone had a medical emergency on the 300 level of Lambeau Field, first responders would have had to push a cot to that patient’s location. But the mini ambulance eliminates that.
“So it’s very versatile for us and allows us to respond a lot quicker in some of these areas that we can’t get a large apparatus in,” Fuiten says.
And it’s not new, either. In fact, it’s pretty old, according to GBMFD Assistant Chief Ryan Gibbons.
“This one has reached the end of its useful life. We’re starting to have issues and maintenance problems with it, so it’s time to replace it so we don’t have those,” Gibbons says.
The city of Green Bay approved $90,000 for an upgraded mini ambulance — one with 30 more horsepower, improved scene lighting, improved HVAC inside and perhaps most importantly, a tighter turn radius.
“Being able for us to get in tighter areas, but then also make it safer for our guys to be able to turn around, so that they wouldn’t maybe have to back up because there still is a rather decent size piece of equipment that causes issues with backing up and things like that,” Gibbons adds.
The current mini ambulance, referred to as EMS 1 by the professionals, has been with GBMFD for 10 years, which is about its lifespan.
The new EMS 1 unit won’t arrive for about two more years, but crews say it’s a vital part of readiness and response at local major events.
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