Category: Did you know

Thursdays we perform a detail truck check of Tanker 51.

Tanker 51 is equipped with 2100 gallons of water. Its primary purpose is to provide water to an incident that may not have a stable water supply such as a hydrant. At the rear of the tank is a large dump valve that allows us to dump all of the water within the tank into a portable tank, allowing the apparatus to leave the scene to go fill up with more water at the nearest hydrant. You can think of Tanker 51 as a Fire Hydrant on wheels.

On Wednesday we perform an extra detailed check of our two brush Trucks. Brush 52 (pictured below) is equiped with 300 gallons of water and an integrated foam system. It also has a chain saw and other hand tools to aid in natural cover fire events.

When you are experiencing a medical emergency one option is to drive yourself or have someone else drive you to the Emergency Room. However sometimes this just isn’t an option. Conditions such as Cardiac Arrest, Choking, Asthma Attack, Sever Allergic Reaction (also known as “Anaphylaxis”) can be emergencies that can’t wait to be treated till you get to the ER. There are also times where your injury or illness needs what we call “Stabilization”. Stabilization is when we stop an injury or illness from getting worse and causing even more harm or pain.

This is where Holt Fire comes in. As a Full-Time Staffed Advanced Life Support (ALS) provider, Holt Fire is an extension of ER. You can look at the ambulance as an Emergency Room on wheels! You will find many of the same things on our ambulance as you would in the Emergency Room. Procedures like advanced airway management (Intubation), intravenous access (IV) and administration of life saving medications are a part of the ALS providers “scope of practice”. This is how we can provide the Holt community and surrounding areas with the best medical care possible.

When you determine that your emergency needs to be looked at sooner than you can get to the Emergency Room, or you cannot get there yourself, you would call 911. The dispatcher would then notify Holt fire to respond.

This is when we bring the Emergency Room to you!

When the ambulance arrives on-scene, the two providers can begin providing emergency medical care. Paramedics and EMTs are trained with similar skills to the Emergency Room staff, but they have a special focus on stabilizing patients for transport to the Emergency Room. In other words we focus on treating life threatening conditions while transporting you to the Emergency Room for definitive care.

So why is it so important that we can bring the Emergency Room to the patient? Simple, there will be times where even a few minutes without being treated for an injury or illness can be the difference between life and death. In addition to that, one of the many things that Holt Fire and all EMS providers are capable of doing is preventing further injury. We have special tools and skills that allow us to reduce the risk of more injuries as compared to going to the Emergency Room by yourself. One of the best examples is someone who fell down the stairs and broke their leg. In this case they may be able to drive themselves to the ER, but doing so may be incredibly painful and walking to the car could cause even more injuries to a broken leg. If instead, the Ambulance comes and transports you to the Emergency Room, we can provide pain management techniques along with stabilization of the broken leg, preventing it from being injured more.

If you have any questions about Holt Fire or would like to see our Ambulance in person, reach out to us at (816)320-3612 or use our contact page!