shiawasseecounty.net

The January 19, 2007 edition of The Argus Press contained a letter to the editor titled "Use of fire truck is a waste of money". The letter was written by Robert Shepherd of Owosso.
Robert Shepherd states that the Owosso City Fire Department is using a $250,000 fire truck on ambulance runs. Mr. Shepherd asks why the department doesn't instead get a Yukon or Trail Blazer to do the job and states further that it would be cheaper to take that Yukon or Trail Blazer instead of the $250,000 fire truck.
In the last paragraph of the letter, Mr. Shepherd states that he would like to see the fire department stop using the big fire truck for these runs and get a different, more economical vehicle to go along with the ambulances.

As a department we began using our Engine 1 pumper on priority 1 & 2 medical calls(cardiac arrest, difficulty breathing, diabetic problems, seizures, etc) shortly after our new chief, Mike Bradley was hired. Chief Bradley wants us to do this in order to prevent back injuries.
The average weight of most of our patients is 200-300 lbs. It can be very difficult for only two men (an ambulance crew) to safely and skillfully negotiate a 200-300 lbs. person down from the third floor of the Kingswood apartments or up the basement stairs of any given house in Owosso. It is far safer for both the ambulance crew and the patient if we take the precaution of sending an engine so nobody gets hurt. Also, as firefighters, none of us wants to suffer a career ending injury when it is so easy to prevent one from happening in the first place.
When an engine is sent on a medical call it is staffed with an engineer and an officer.
At this time the department has no intention of buying a Yukon or a Trail Blazer. It would not serve much purpose if we did.
For the sake of argument let's say we did have a Yukon and it did run with the ambulance. While on an ambulance call we receive another call for a house fire in Owosso. What would we do then? We certainly could not fight a fire with a Yukon. For this reason alone it is better to be prepared than unprepared.
As a fire department we suspect that Robert Shepherd is not alone in wondering why we utilize an engine on ambulance calls. If any Owosso citizen has any questions, feel free to come down to the station and have a talk with us. You have a right to know what is going on with YOUR fire department. Thanks!!

Good answer! Thank you.

Thanks for your explanation. I get a lot of questions about this myself. I think I can now explain it correctly. Gary Martenis