ALLEGHANY/PIKE/FOREST CITY – On Sunday, October 29th, the Pliocene Ridge Community Services District (PRCSD) Board of Directors approved converting the Alleghany Ambulance to an EMS Alternate Transport Vehicle. This change will mean that it can respond to medical emergencies even if an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) is not available. An ambulance must have an EMT on board to respond to an emergency, and currently, there are only two EMTs in the district. This change will allow firefighters to take the patient to a responding ambulance or helicopter for quicker transfer to a higher level of medical care.

The Alleghany ambulance is owned by Downieville Fire Protection District, housed in Alleghany, and staffed by first responders from the Alleghany and Pike City Fire Departments. As previously explained in this paper, the old agreement between Sierra County Service Area 2, Downieville Fire Protection District, and Alleghany Volunteer Fire Dept. (before the formation of PRCSD) came to light earlier this year with the need for an updated agreement between all parties including Nor-Cal EMS, which had inadvertently been left out of the earlier agreements.

There are two main differences between a Basic Life Support (BLS) Ambulance and an Alternate Transport Vehicle. The minimum staffing requirement for a BLS Ambulance is one EMT and one driver. In contrast, the minimum staffing requirement for an Alternate Transport Vehicle is at least one person with a Public Safety-First Aid Certificate (part of standard firefighter training). The other big difference is that an EMS Alternate Transport Vehicle must get permission from the responding Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulance to transport a patient, and the transport is limited to either a rendezvous with the ambulance or transport to a landing zone for a medevac helicopter. In the event of a shortage of ambulances, an Alternate Transport Vehicle may be permitted to transport a patient all the way to a hospital.

What does this mean for residents?

Currently, when there is a 911 medical call in the Pliocene Ridge Area, an ALS ambulance is automatically requested by the dispatcher. This will not change. What will be different is that the old Alleghany ambulance, with a change of paint and the new moniker “Rescue 7145,” will be able to respond directly to the scene of the emergency with or without an EMT on board. In situations where the patient is stable, or the ambulance is close by, Rescue 7145 will not transport the patient. In situations where time is of the essence, Rescue 7145 may be used to expedite patient delivery to a higher level of medical care. Downieville Fire Protection District supports this transition and has offered to sell the vehicle to Pliocene Ridge CSD for $1.