At a recent meeting, Carlisle Fire Company requested additional funding from Milford City Council. The request was to cover added expenses the department has incurred due to growth in the city.
“Our call volume is growing. The community continues to grow. Last year, we ran over 5,000 ambulance calls with two full-time crews working 24 hours per day,” Kevin Donovan, EMS Captain and Vice-President of the company said. “We’re looking to, hopefully, by the summertime, have a third crew during the day because of our call volume.”
The company is purchasing another ambulance but will keep an older ambulance as a spare due to the call volume. This means they need funding to properly equip the fourth ambulance. In order to do that, Carlisle was asking council to withdraw funds from the Fire Enhancement Fund. This is a fund held by the city that is to be used for safety infrastructure and is collected as part of building permit fees.
“The largest expense we will incur is the power lift unit which is about $77,000 and what this does is basically keep old guys like me in business,” Donovan said. “I’ve been riding an ambulance for 35 years, lifting stretchers into the back with just two of us but now we have this device mounted into the back of the ambulance, making it safer for the patient and for the people on the ambulance. It lifts up to 1,000 pounds.”
Another piece of equipment that the company needs on the new ambulance is a LUCAS device which does CPR compressions for them.
“It provides continuous, consistent compressions where any of us would probably, after about two minutes, not be as effective,” Donovan said. “This machine can run continually for 40 minutes, and it can save someone’s life.”
Other items the company requested included a stair chair for $3,500, backboards for $1,500, a suction unit for $1,200, CO monitor for $230, pulse ox machine for $800, as well as splints, burn kits and other medical devices.
“This fund is created by a quarter of one percent of all building permits issued,” Rob Pierce, City Planner, said. “If you build an addition onto your house, a quarter of one percent will go into a fund for the fire companies. As of March 11, there was $358,000 in the fund.”
The fire company was asking for $149,000 from the fund. The request was approved unanimously.
