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North County Fire Protection District approves ambulance acquisition

The North County Fire Protection District will be replacing one of its ambulances in 2018.

The NCFPD board voted 5-0, Dec. 12, to approve the purchase of a new 2018 Life Line ambulance.

“We should see that here by July 1 if not sooner,” NCFPD Fire Chief Steve Abbott said.

The closure of Fallbrook Hospital in December 2014 has forced NCFPD ambulances to transport patients to hospitals in other towns and has increased ambulance travel.

“We’ve tripled the amount of mileage the ambulances take for calls,” Abbott said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s U.S. Fire Administration has an Assistance to Firefighters Grant program, which includes Vehicle Acquisition Grant funding, and that source provided the fire district with most of the funding for the new ambulance. The total cost for the new ambulance is $210,495 which includes California taxes and a Stryker gurney retention system. The Aid to Firefighters Grant will provide $186,488, while the 10 percent match requirement will involve $18,649 of NCFPD funding, not including $5,361 for the gurney retention system.

The additional mileage has decreased the expected service life of NCFPD ambulances from five years to three years. The new ambulance will allow one of the existing ambulances to be removed from the NCFPD fleet.

“It will replace an ambulance. We have one that we’re taking out of service,” Abbott said.

The fire department has multiple options for ambulances which are no longer in service. “Sometimes they’re put in reserve, sometimes they go to auction and sometimes we do what’s called a remount,” Abbott said.

Abbott indicated that the ambulance which will be replaced will be auctioned or remounted but will not be used as reserve vehicle in the NCFPD fleet.

Author Bio

Joe Naiman, Writer

Joe Naiman has been writing for the Village News since 2001

 

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