New ambulance for south county

The East Fork Fire & Paramedic Districts announced the purchase of a new ambulance that has been placed at Topaz Ranch Estates Fire Station No. 4 in southern Douglas County.

In the fall of 2003, the districts' administration, district board of directors, and the fire chiefs' advisory board all recognized a need to provide advanced life support staffed services in this area, so they immediately began working on a plan to make it happen.

In the summer of 2006, with the financial assistance of a Community Development Block Grant in the amount of $150,000, the first part of their plan was realized with the expansion of fire station 4.

This expansion has provided for sleeping and living accommodations to house two career firefighter/medics 24 hours a day, as well as a new training/ community meeting room, kitchen and apparatus storage.

However, to complete the districts' goal of providing immediate ALS response to the residents in the area, an ALS ambulance still needed to be purchased.

This is where the Community Development Block Grant program was once again ready to step in with an additional $60,000 in grant funds to assist with the purchase of this much needed ambulance.

"Without the assistance provided by the Community Development Block Grant Program, the Advanced Life Support Program would definitely have been delayed or not possible at all," said Deputy Fire Chief/EMS Bobby Wartgow.