A Busy Day for the First Aid Squad (1/12/96)

While the gas main break on Maple Street kept the Fire Department busy for most of the day on Wednesday, the Summit Volunteer First Aid Squad was kept busy as well. Between 6:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. First Aid Squad volunteers responded to a total of 12 calls; 9 emergency calls in the City, 1 non-emergency transportation and 2 mutual aid emergency calls in Mountainside.

The Duty Crew was summoned to stand-by for the gas main emergency at about 8:00 a.m. Shortly after that, a back-up call was transmitted for a second crew to respond to an emergency at the train station. Additional members who had responded to the Squad's headquarters on Summit Ave. staffed the 3rd ambulance and were dispatched to a mutual aid call in Mountainside shortly thereafter. At this point, CENCOM, the Squad's dispatch agency stopped transmitting calls via pagers, as they normally do, and simply assigned calls via radio to whichever crew was available. On 2 occasions that day, all 3 of the Squad's ambulances were involved in simultaneous calls.

Two of the calls were directly related to the gas main break, including one to the tier parking garage for 2 employees who were having breathing difficulties after reporting the strong odor of gas. One call was snow related; a woman who slipped on the ice sustained an ankle injury. This was at least the 8th snow/ice- related injury that the Squad has handled this Winter.

A total of 11 members responded to the various calls that day. One member commented. "There were no calls on Tuesday, so we had to catch-up".

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