N.C. Responders Build Bicycle Response Team

March 13--HIGH POINT -- If someone in your office has a medical emergency, firefighters may arrive by bicycle to help.

The High Point Fire Department recently got a grant of about $18,800 to outfit bike teams - trained firefighters who respond to calls on bicycles.

The department created a 10-member bike team a few months ago but used borrowed equipment, said Deputy Chief Tim Wright. This grant will pay to train 11 additional firefighters and buy uniforms.

It also paid for eight mountain bicycles outfitted with sirens, Automated External Defibrillators, oxygen, masks for CPR, bandages, EpiPens and other necessary equipment. The teams will share the bikes.

Two team members respond to each call.

The firefighters on the teams are already part of the department, Wright said.

He said Chief Tommy Reid made the teams a priority when he was appointed last year. The department implemented the first bike team in October during the Furniture Market.

"This is great during Market," Wright said. "It gives us more mobility. We can investigate fire calls and relay information via radio."

The department will use the bike teams primarily for medical calls, he said, but also for other things such as parades. The team worked during the holiday and MLK parades and it also will work the Easter Egg Hunt.

Wright said the bikes are sometimes easier to maneuver in crowds.

"Some people get scared with sirens, ever since 9/11," he said.

Although the fire engines will still respond to every call the bike team responds to, the bike team will frequently complete the call if it's a medical problem or determine it's a false alarm before the engine gets there, Wright said.

That keeps the fire truck free to respond to other calls, he said.

The grant for the bike teams was provided by CalSurance Associates and the Fireman's Fund Insurance Company.

Contact Sarah Newell Williamson at (336) 373-7076, and follow @snewell on Twitter.

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