SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Fire Department is phasing out some of its older ambulances with newer models, designed with the help of the men and women who will use them.
Between the already-delivered 18 ambulances in the fiscal 2018 budget and the 21 more in fiscal 2019's budget, the Fire Department will have enough new ambulances to fill its full-time fleet, plus a few to be used during peak hours.
Fire Chief Charles Hood said the department's paramedics are the ones that basically designed the units. The new ambulances will include technology like UV germicidal lights, power-loading systems for patients and anti-theft systems.
"I would consider it one of the finest ambulances that any metro fire department in the country has," Hood said at a media event Wednesday.
The Fire Department rotates out its ambulances after four years and 200,000 miles. Some of the older ambulances will be used during peak hours or for the reserve fleet.
William Weeks, a fire apparatus operator assigned to the EMS division and a co-chair of the apparatus committee, said that apart from safety and design standards implemented by the state, the incremental increases every year are driven by the people in the field who use the equipment.
The UV-C light in each of the new units can be used in addition to the normal, liquid antiseptics to help clean the backs of the ambulances. The light will bounce off hard surfaces, Weeks said, allowing it to get into hard-to-reach areas.
The power-loading system should help save crews' backs as it does the heavy lifting of loading and unloading patients for them. That's a relief for Weeks, who said that after 20 years of EMS, his back "hurts all the time."
"So 15 to 20 times a shift, you're loading or unloading a patient. So it will definitely save some of that repetitive wear and tear," Weeks said.
The new, anti-theft system included in each ambulance will lock vehicles automatically when arriving on the scene, and require some kind of action by a paramedic or firefighter to drive it. The department would not go into detail about how exactly that worked.
The addition comes after what Hood said were two incidents of someone stealing a fire unit, including one in August where a patient stole an ambulance and led the police on a chase that ended with him crashing into four vehicles.
"I think it was something that we were thinking about doing, but it was definitely the impetus for us to go and get it done," Hood said.
Hood said the department have also retrofitted its other vehicles with anti-theft systems.
Out of 18 ambulances that have arrived in the city, eight have already been put into service. The other 10 will join them as soon as they are finished being outfitted, an SAFD spokesman said.