Fire Chief Antonio Lopez anticipates local emergency medical services increasing in efficiency thanks to the purchase of two new ambulances.
The Weslaco Fire Department on Thursday received 2016 Ford F-450 twin units equipped with 174-inch module boxes and mobile intensive care unit capabilities, including an on-board wireless router allowing EMS technicians to send critical information to the hospital where patients will be transported -- all while being treated on scene.
"They will get to the scene, get off the ambulance and actually walk into a residence with a heart monitor, start treatment in the house and transmit a telemetry reading. That's sent to the hospital where they'll be taking the patient," Lopez said Monday, using a hypothetical call as a for instance.
"Before they would do that in the ambulance, but with this router we'll have a 300 feet bubble that'll allow them to send information from greater distances. That'll shave two or three minutes off the treatment plan."
The $340,000 lease purchase was made through the WFD's Apparatus Replacement Program, which dedicates 25 percent of the city's annual in-house EMS revenue -- about $1.6 million during the last fiscal year -- toward replacing department equipment.
Also purchased through the program was a new $525,000 fire truck, a 2016 Ferrara rescue pumper customized for WFD needs, including a 1,700 gallon-per-minute pump capable of carrying up to 1,000 gallons of water. The department's fire engines, with the exception of one, are currently equipped for 500 gallons, Lopez said.
"This is state of the art," the chief further noted about the new fire truck, which is due to arrive sometime in October.
Through the program, the city is leasing the ambulances for $68,000 a year over five years, and the fire truck at $52,000 for over 10 years.
At $170,000 apiece, Lopez said the new ambulances are among the first purchases made through the program and credited city leaders for their support in launching it.
The department averages about 8,500 calls per year with more than 6,000 coming in as requests for ambulance services. Each firefighter in Weslaco is cross-trained as a paramedic in order to maintain the department's dual function as an in-house EMS operation.