Chattanooga Firefighters Roll Out New Life-Saving Vehicles

This may surprise you… Chattanooga Firefigthers respond to more than just fires, they respond to car wrecks and medical emergencies.

In fact, out of roughly 17-thousand calls last year, almost half were for medical emergencies.

Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke, says, “At city hall, at the fire department, we’re always trying to figure out how to do our job better.”

A solution to quicker medical care from our local firefightes comes in the form of this: a fleet of three new Ford Explorers.

The Quick Response Vehicles are staffed with two firefighters who are trained to EMT or EMT Advanced level.

Training Chief Phil Hyman, with the Chattanooga Fire Department, says, “When it comes to heart muscle and brain damage on medical calls, we can get our fire fighters there quicker to provide quicker medical care.”

Better medical care was the city’s number one reason for starting this pilot program.

The number two reason? It’s saving taxpayer’s money.

Mayor Berke adds, “Because it’s very expensive to roll out the fire trucks, and it’s much easier and better to roll out these, particularly when those fire trucks aren’t needed, which is on these medical calls.”

Listen to this, these fire trucks only get four miles to the gallon!

Expensive trips sometimes for no reason whatsoever.

Now, these new SUV’s will be parked at the fire stations that receive the most medical calls, like Station five on Willow Street, Station 8 on Hickory Valley, and Station 19 just off Hixson Pike.

And if all goes well, the program will be here to stay, and more SUV’s will be added to the life-saving pack.