Ambulance

An ambulance was called for a person with life-threatening injuries Wednesday morning after a car ran off the road, went into trees and overturned east of Hagerstown, according to Washington County Emergency Services. The accident, at Jefferson Boulevard and Indian Lane, was reported at 10:07 a.m. Wednesday, the 911 supervisor said.

The Washington County Board of Commissioners voted 4-0 Tuesday to approve a loan of $94,476 to Sharpsburg Area Emergency Medical Services toward its purchase of a new ambulance. The company is replacing its 2000 Ford F-550 Horton ambulance, which has mileage of more than 100,450 miles, Washington County Director of Emergency Services Kevin L. Lewis said. The money will be loaned to the company from the county's Fire and Rescue Revolving Loan Fund, which had a balance of $300,000 prior to the loan to Sharpsburg Area EMS, Lewis said.

Sharpsburg Volunteer Fire Co. and Sharpsburg Area Emergency Medical Services are planning a new, six-bay building to house both operations, although the companies will remain separate entities, officials said. “Both departments have justifiable needs, just based on the size of our firetrucks and ambulances and the tightness of keeping them inside the building,” Fire Chief Allen James said. The fire and ambulance stations are both in the 100 block of West Chapline Street; a gravel parking lot is between them.

A child who suffered a head injury from playing football at Marty Snook Park on Monday afternoon was taken to Meritus Medical Center, according to the 911 supervisor with Washington County Emergency Services. A Maryland State Police helicopter was called to pick up the child, but emergency officials weren't sure whether the helicopter would make it to the park due to bad weather, the 911 supervisor said.  After several minutes, the call for the helicopter was canceled, the supervisor said.

SMITHSBURG - A Smithsburg EMS ambulance slid off the road and struck a shed Thursday while on its way to a call on Edgemont Road, the Washington County Sheriff's Department said. There were no patients on board and no one was injured in the accident, Deputy J.D. Litten said. The ambulance's rear passenger-side wheels slid off the roadway and down a small embankment in the 14000 block of Edgemont Road about 5:28 p.m., Litten said. The driver, trying to keep the vehicle on the road, oversteered and struck a shed and several trees beside the road, Litten said.

WILLIAMSPORT - The heads of Williamsport's fire and ambulance services, which have been housed in the same building since January, soon will answer to one chief. Members from the ambulance and fire companies voted by a 3-to-1 margin toward the end of a lengthy meeting Monday night to consolidate their departments. The change will take effect Jan. 1, said Jay Grimes, president of the Williamsport Volunteer Fire Co. According to Grimes, who will take over as president of the Williamsport Volunteer Fire & EMS in its inaugural year, the consolidation means more personnel will be available to respond to fire and medical emergencies.

Ambulance company seeks help SHARPSBURG - The troubled Sharpsburg ambulance company has put out another SOS. The Sharpsburg Area Emergency Medical Services will hold a meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the station on Chapline Street, said Bill Myers, president of the ambulance company's board. "We're putting out pleas for help to anyone to help in any way," he said. The most dire need is emergency medical technicians. Myers said the company has only three or four, far short of the 10 required by the county.

By BRENDAN KIRBY Staff Writer SHARPSBURG - Back on the job for nearly two months, the chief of Sharpsburg volunteer ambulance company is approaching a massive reorganization as if he is starting a new service. The Sharpsburg Area Emergency Medical Services Inc. still is on probation, but Larry Myers said he hopes new bylaws, new officers and help from the Washington County Volunteer Fire & Rescue Association will put the company back on track. It has been a tumultuous year for the service, marked by infighting and staffing shortages.

Franklin County has implemented a new ambulance-response system to improve safety for emergency crews and the general public by using lights and sirens only when necessary, officials said Wednesday. The Franklin County Department of Emergency Services, in conjunction with the Franklin County EMS Chief's Association, put a priority-dispatching system in place on May 1, according to David Donohue, Franklin County emergency management coordinator. The system uses a question-type format to determine the severity of the patient's condition, provide the caller with instructions to begin patient care and determine response criteria.

Having been spared the worst of Hurricane Sandy, ambulance and state highway crews from Washington County have been deployed to harder hit areas, including the New Jersey shore and snowbound Garrett County in Maryland. Two ambulance strike teams arrived Thursday at the Atlantic County Training Center in Egg Harbor Township, N.J., according to a Thursday email from Capt. Jeremy Mackrell of Community Rescue Service. They were then redeployed to Northern New Jersey where their base of operations in Rutherford, N.J., Mackrell wrote.

Donations, including a $240,000 pledge from Chambersburg Hospital, are allowing the Chambersburg Emergency Services Department to expand its fleet of ambulances. The borough will be buying a third ambulance, with plans that two of those ambulances will be available for calls during peak times. Currently, it operates one ambulance each day. The department is required to keep one ambulance in reserve, plus one of them is typically undergoing maintenance on any given day, Borough Manager Jeffrey Stonehill said Monday.

Sharpsburg Volunteer Fire Co. and Sharpsburg Area Emergency Medical Services are planning a new, six-bay building to house both operations, although the companies will remain separate entities, officials said. “Both departments have justifiable needs, just based on the size of our firetrucks and ambulances and the tightness of keeping them inside the building,” Fire Chief Allen James said. The fire and ambulance stations are both in the 100 block of West Chapline Street; a gravel parking lot is between them.

A male pedestrian was struck by a vehicle Thursday night near the Exxon/AC&T gas station at the intersection of Halfway Boulevard and Hopewell Road, according to a Washington County Emergency Services supervisor. Washington County Sheriff's deputies and emergency medical personnel responded and evaluated the man who had been hit, the supervisor said. The man was transported by ambulance to Meritus Medical Center with “very minor” injuries, according to a sheriff's deputy.

West Virginia University Hospitals-East's City Hospital Foundation recently donated $10,000 to HealthNet VIII to purchase a GlideScope for the Martinsburg-based air ambulance helicopter, according to a news release. The GlideScope is a device used by flight nurses and paramedics to insert breathing tubes in patients who have suffered severe trauma or to treat patients who have a difficult airway and are not breathing on their own. This video scope has a high-resolution digital camera that is connected to a high-resolution LCD monitor, which assists the flight staff in establishing an airway.

Having been spared the worst of Hurricane Sandy, ambulance and state highway crews from Washington County have been deployed to harder hit areas, including the New Jersey shore and snowbound Garrett County in Maryland. Two ambulance strike teams arrived Thursday at the Atlantic County Training Center in Egg Harbor Township, N.J., according to a Thursday email from Capt. Jeremy Mackrell of Community Rescue Service. They were then redeployed to Northern New Jersey where their base of operations in Rutherford, N.J., Mackrell wrote.

One person was taken to the hospital after an accident involving a taxi and a pickup truck at the intersection of Burhans Boulevard and Chase Street south of the railroad underpass Thursday morning, Mike Alderton of the Hagerstown Police Department said. The 7 a.m. accident occurred when a Chevrolet Silverado heading south on Burhans Boulevard crossed the middle of the road and collided with the front of a Chevrolet Cavalier taxi from C&R Sedan that was headed north, Alderton said.

Franklin County has implemented a new ambulance-response system to improve safety for emergency crews and the general public by using lights and sirens only when necessary, officials said Wednesday. The Franklin County Department of Emergency Services, in conjunction with the Franklin County EMS Chief's Association, put a priority-dispatching system in place on May 1, according to David Donohue, Franklin County emergency management coordinator. The system uses a question-type format to determine the severity of the patient's condition, provide the caller with instructions to begin patient care and determine response criteria.

A bill that would allow Washington County's volunteer fire and rescue companies to bill for services ran into resistance Thursday from representatives of insurance companies. Some members of the House Health and Government Operations Committee also expressed skepticism when Del. Andrew A. Serafini, R-Washington, presented the bill, even though it would apply only to Washington County. During an interview Thursday night, Serafini, the Washington County delegation chairman, said he didn't think the committee would approve the bill.

This winter, when an alarm comes into the Middleway Fire Co., its volunteers send out a pumper from its heated garage. If it's a big fire and they need the tanker, they fill it up at a fire hydrant three miles away. There's no room for it in the two-bay temporary garage that serves as the fledgling department's firehouse. "We have to drain the water out of it so it won't freeze," said Mike Mood, Middleway's fire chief. "And we have to plug in the ambulance to an electric heater because it stays outside, too. " Those problems began to melt away Saturday morning in a vacant field a half-mile south of the village of Middleway when Mood, standing in a line of shovel-wielding dignitaries, ordered them to "take out a scoop of dirt and we'll get started.

For many, pork and sauerkraut is not only tasty, but a must on New Year's Day. German legend promises that eating pork and sauerkraut on the first day of the year brings good luck all year. But Fayetteville (Pa.) Fire Co. President Mark Bumbaugh thinks it just tastes delicious. "I love it. It's a tradition (on New Year's Day)," Bumbaugh said. Six years ago, the fire company began ringing in the New Year with the traditional meal, which has an unmistakable smell. Proceeds from the all-you-can-eat pork and sauerkraut meal will benefit the fire company, he said.