CINCINNATI — For the first time since 2009, the Cincinnati Fire Department (CFD) added a new medical transport unit, put in service Sunday in Avondale.
Assistant Fire Chief Matt Flagler said the unit will enhance the support they can give to those in areas around the University of Cincinnati campus and adjacent neighborhoods.
"This is an advanced life-support paramedic unit, meaning that we can do anything that the emergency room can do in about the first 15 or 20 minutes," Flagler said.
Flagler said it gives them more resources to help patients when responding to emergency calls.
Learn how CFD is hopeful the new medical unit will help reduce response times in the video below:
"We can stabilize patients, we can deliver babies, we can restart hearts, we can give all kinds of medications," Flagler said.
Flagler said the reason the department went so long without a new one was due to staffing issues.
"Because the city has given us more recruit classes over the last several years, we have adequate staffing now that enables us to get more resources into our EMS response areas," Flagler said.
The new addition means the department now has 13 medic units in total.
Flagler said their medic units respond to up to 6,000 calls a year. He said firefighters spend roughly half of their day using those units.
"Any time that we can add more units to that will reduce response times, will get people to the hospital even more quickly," Flagler said.
Fire Chief Frank McKinley said adding the new unit is a huge deal. He said it will help improve response times in the surrounding areas and also help other units respond to calls throughout the rest of the city.
"It also has a cascading set of circumstances that occur just from not calling other units out of the area," McKinley said.
Flagler said the medic unit does increase the workload for firefighters at the station. However, he said it's something they're proud to do.
"We're glad to do the more work because we think it will have a direct impact on lives and public safety," McKinley said.
