February 28, 2023 |
Hanna will be home to the most high-tech ambulance in the west.
Thanks to a USDA grant, the Town will receive a brand-new ambulance for the new ambulance barn there. The expected delivery sometime next year. SCWEMS Director Stayton Mosbey said the medical rig will have a special emergency lighting bar installed. Mosbey said the light bar will change flashing patterns depending on the situation and time of day.
The lightbars are manufactured by a Michigan company called SoundOff Signal. Mosbey said the lights can synch to the pattern used by other emergency vehicles in the area.
Photo – SCWEMS Ambulances – Bigfoot99 File Photo
Mosbey said the ambulance will be equipped with various infectious disease prevention measures. The SCWEMS Director said germ-killing interior lights, air filters, and surface coatings will help keep first responders from getting ill.
The ambulance will also be fitted with automatic deployable tire chains, like on the county’s school buses. Combined with four-wheel-drive, the new ambulance will be capable of reaching patients in remote or heavily drifted areas. Mosbey described how, once on the scene, emergency responders can use a motorized stretcher loader to automatically lift patients into the back of the ambulance. The loader has a 700-pound weight limit.
The state-of-the-art ambulance isn’t cheap. Mosbey said SCWEMS was able to fund 55% of the total $315,000 price tag using a no-match USDA grant. The remaining $148,000 will be covered by SCWEMS.
Mosbey said the Wyoming Department of Transportation offered SCWEMS a $25,000 grant to purchase new radios. Mosbey said the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services, or CAAS, will only award their “gold standard” certification if an ambulance has a two-way radio for each responder. The SCWEMS Director said supply chain issues may delay the walkie-talkies.
SCWEMS will host an open house at its ambulance barn in Encampment on May 20th. Mosbey said the event will give the community a look at the operation.
Meanwhile, the ambulance barn in Saratoga is being expanded. Mosbey said the building is too small for meetings and training classes. The SCWEMS Director said when construction is complete, the building will have much more space.
Mosbey said work on the Saratoga ambulance barn is underway. Finishing touches will need to wait until after the county’s July 1st budget hearings. Once the building is completed, Mosbey said he would like to name it after Tyeler Harris, a fallen Carbon County first responder.
Harris was killed, and his partner, Tiffany Gruetzmacher, was severely injured, just before Christmas last year while responding to an emergency call on Interstate 80. Memorial Hospital of Carbon County has created a scholarship program in Harris’s name to train emergency medical technicians.
SCWEMS is planning on hosting an open house at the Saratoga ambulance barn after it is completed.
