Today marks the second week that the new Troy Fire Department ambulance has been in limited service. Thanks to the generous support of the UVMC Foundation and Premier Health, this unit is answering low-priority calls during peak times of the weekday. Our Fire Command Staff, led by Chief Matt Simmons, analyzed call volumes and found that, while our department workload is within the national standards, 68 percent of our calls occur between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m., and nearly 75 percent of those calls are low-priority. At this time, we plan to staff this ambulance during the hours of 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Monday through Friday.
This means Station 11 now has two ambulances: Medic 11 and the additional new ambulance, Medic 15. To help staff the Medic 15, we have scheduled an additional firefighter at Station 11. When Medic 15 is responding to a call from Station 11, we still have personnel at Station 11 capable of responding with the ALS-equipped engine or Medic 11 to our downtown district. Of course, we still have ambulances and engines at Stations 12 and 13 available to respond to calls.
As previously stated by Mayor Robin Oda, "We're very thankful to UVMC and Premier for this new ambulance, which will provide additional emergency support to our citizens. We remain good stewards of taxpayer funding and are always looking at ways we can improve and increase services to our community”.