Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 12, 1993 TAG: 9302120065
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE SIMPSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
RESCUE VEHICLE PUT INTO SERVICE
It took five years for Roanoke Emergency Medical Services Inc. to collect enough donations for a new crash truck.But officials - who placed the $200,000 vehicle into service Thursday - say it was well worth the wait.
The truck shows just how far the former Roanoke Lifesaving First Aid Crew has come since its first "ambulance" - a hearse donated by John M. Oakey Funeral Home back in the '20s.
The custom-built truck arrived Jan. 9 at Rescue Station 2 on Day Avenue in Southwest Roanoke empty, and worth about $90,000.
But after a month of preparations by both the volunteer and paid crews, amenities were loaded onto the truck. Those included metal headlight reflectors, air bags to lift cars, rappelling gear, a basket to carry people to safety and auxiliary lighting.
Other common rescue squad vehicle items were transferred to the new truck from a recently sold, 30-year-old vehicle. The crew also spent $6,000 refurbishing the "jaws of life," an 80-pound tool that opens wedged-in doors and cuts cars in half.
Community donations, fund drives and bequests paid for the rescue truck - which is twice as expensive as any bought solely with contributions in the past 10 years.
"This is the first time we've bought something of this magnitude," said Ken Harper, operations officer for Roanoke Emergency Medical Services.
The vehicle was "absolutely financed by the citizens of Roanoke," said Sidney Robertson, chairman of the board of directors and president of Roanoke Emergency Medical Services.
The truck is the latest tool in helping Roanoke Emergency Medical Services respond quickly to medical emergencies, a program that began as a dream for Julian Stanley Wise.
Wise spent 19 years thinking of a way to stop needless deaths after he watched two boys drown in the Roanoke River when their canoe overturned when he was 9.
Wise founded the Roanoke Lifesaving First Aid Crew, said to be the first volunteer lifesaving crew in the world, on May 28, 1928.
Now the Williamson Road Northeast and Day Avenue Southwest stations make up Roanoke Emergency Medical Services and house nine ambulances, two crash trucks and a four-wheel-drive vehicle. Station 4 on Melrose Avenue Northwest houses another ambulance.
Roanoke Emergency Medical Services answers about 14,000 calls annually and has 123 volunteers who provide about $800,000 in free services for Roanoke. Twenty-six full-time paramedics and emergency medical technicians and 25 part-time emergency rescue workers also work for the medical service but are paid by the city.