Loaded & Ready to Go

"Even before September 11, 2001, we starting acquiring things," says Robert Stadelman, an EMT-Critical Care (ALS) paramedic and captain for the Exchange Ambulance of the Islips, based in East Islip, NY. "We acquired a big inflatable emergency shelter to use at either standbys or MCIs; then we got new backboards, so we stockpiled our old ones for use in MCIs; and we had also accumulated lots of BLS stuff-gauze, clings, Band-Aids, tape. There was just no way to easily transport it."

     The way Stadelman explains it, a growing cache of equipment was scattered throughout storage closets and containers at the service's headquarters and had become both time-consuming and cumbersome to load and organize when needed at large events. So they started looking for a solution.

     The all-volunteer EMS service, with 85 members headed by Chief Vinny Geraci, covers three additional towns on about 25 square miles of Long Island's south shore-Islip, Islip Terrace and Great River-as well as Fire Island. They answer about 2,600 emergency calls a year, provide rehab to firefighters from four departments, plus staff a plethora of special events. They do not bill for services, and with funding generated by a tiny percentage of the local property tax, called a "millage," their budget is small.

     "We cover Hecksher State Park, which is extremely busy in the summer months, a portion of a second state park, as well as two school districts," says Stadelman. "We provide standby EMS services for events that may have as many as 30,000 people in attendance, such as outdoor concerts and sporting events."

     The question was how to get all the equipment to handle the many things that might happen at these events to the sites in a smart and useful way.

     "We started with a little cargo trailer," he says, "but we ran into problems."

     Besides the fact that the container was too small (quickly going overweight), it took a long time to hook up to a tow vehicle (too long when it was needed at a large fire, for example), and since a lot of people don't drive trailers routinely, it presented a safety hazard. So the agency started looking at trucks. "I think the cheapest custom rescue truck was about $250,000," says Stadelman, "and that was just a little outside of our budget. So we started looking for an 'off-the-shelf' commercial vehicle."

     They found a box-type utility truck such as a contractor, plumber or electrician might use-about two feet taller than a standard Type III ambulance-at a local dealership, and the wheels started turning. "We thought instead of storing tools in it, we could use it to store our equipment," Stadel says.

     Modifications to turn this off-the-lot utility truck into a special operations vehicle (SOV) were insignificant. Tool cabinets, accessible externally on both sides of the vehicle, put ALS and BLS equipment close at hand. The extra height and shelving units on the interior easily accommodated a number of storage bins for additional MCI supplies. There was also plenty of room for the inflatable shelter and a generator.

     With all that, the chassis it's built on is the same as many of their rigs' chassis-a Ford E-450. Both the cab and the engine are similarly identical.

     "Same engine, same chassis, same cab," says Stadelman, "which is nice for our members. They just get in and know how to drive it."

     The dealer installed the generator as a courtesy and a local vendor installed radios, lights, sirens and graphics to mark it as an emergency vehicle. The entire cost came to $53,000.

     "Now, we are able to not only carry all of our essential standby and rehab resources, but all kinds of MCI equipment on the vehicle-the black bins on the inside of the vehicle are filled with basic life support stuff...some chemical protective suits and respirators for hazmat incidents, as well as decontamination rollers."

     And there's more on the way. The county has indicated they're going to provide more hazmat and decon supplies to stockpile in the vehicle.

Treatment-Ready
     "Once you pull up to the scene, you shut the truck motor off, start the generator-just press and hold a little button, there are no pull cords-and you can run all the electricals in the vehicle, because it sends power to the battery chargers. The generator uses diesel fuel and runs off the truck's 55-gallon fuel tank," says Stadelman.

     The big blue tent, which can be fully heated and cooled, folds up into a bag and stows into the back of the truck.

     "We just pull it out of the bag, hook it up to the little inflator pump that plugs into the generator, and it inflates in about 10 minutes," Stadelman says. Doors that go on either end can be used to close it completely off. "We can use it to run incident commands or as a treatment area. It allows us to set up a little field hospital in a matter of minutes," says Stadelman. Plus, "if there ever were a disaster with multiple patients, we could open those bins up and dump a ton of supplies. The one thing we've learned is if something big happens, you can't count on resources getting to a local community instantly. We wanted to be self-sufficient for those first few hours before federal or state-level resources could get to us. Especially on Long Island-we're kind of isolated."

     For more information, visit www.islipexchange.com, or e-mail rstadelman@islipexchange.com.