The New Zealand Fire Service (NZFS) and St John Ambulance are to build an Iveco-based, prototype fire appliance vehicle that will also function as an ambulance.
The ‘fire-ambulance’ is in the early stages of design and it is expected to be on the road for trials in the middle of next year.
As part of the New Zealand Fire Service-St John memorandum of understanding, in some areas the volunteer fire brigade is also the medical first responder for St John. These brigades are trained by St John to a higher level of first aid care than other brigades.
“The country’s ambulance services and the Fire Service have always worked closely together to provide the best possible results for the patient, and the public,” says Paul Baxter, national fire service commander and chief executive.
Last year the fire service responded to 6000 medical call outs, which was 9% of all its incidents. This number has almost doubled over the past decade. Three quarters of these calls are responded to by volunteer firefighters, often because there is no ambulance immediately available, in more isolated rural areas.
St John operations director Michael Brooke says: “One of the key challenges we face – as does the NZFS – is sustaining a volunteer workforce in rural and remote communities and we see examples where people volunteer their time for both the fire brigade and St John.
“The objective of this joint initiative is to make it easier for volunteers in these communities to provide high quality emergency and health service coverage.
“Demand for our services is growing. St John attended more than 350,000 incidents last year – a 4.2% increase on the previous year. We work with our emergency partners to look at ways to manage that demand and ensure we continue to provide patients with the best possible care, with the most appropriate resources.”
The Iveco van that has been selected for the prototype will have an operational weight of up to seven tonnes, and is about as long as a fire appliance.
The design will have a two-person cab at the front, the pump and fire equipment storage in the middle, and the rear will be a single stretcher clinical space with seating for two more crew members. The vehicle will also be fitted with an under floor water tank.
