Manhattan Beach to Buy Another Ambulance

Manhattan Beach, whose two aging ambulances frequently suffer “embarrassing” breakdowns, is going to get an additional rescue ambulance. The City Council this week approved spending $10,500 to buy one.

Manhattan Beach paramedics, who average between six and seven calls a day, use a 10-year-old reserve ambulance that Fire Chief Keith Hackamack says is unreliable. In a letter to the City Council last month, Hackamack said that replacing the reserve ambulance is the department’s highest priority.

The nearest hospital is South Bay Hospital in Redondo Beach, three to five miles away.

The ambulance used most frequently--a 1983 Ford--has broken down between 20 and 30 times in the last year, including a number of times when it was carrying a patient, Hackamack said.

“I can remember at least six times” when it was carrying patients, Hackamack said.

Hackamack said the reserve unit that he wants to replace--a 1978 Dodge High Top van--is “a little old and a little creaky.” It, too, has broken down--about 10 times in the last year, but not while carrying a patient, Hackamack said.

Several times, the fire chief said, both ambulances were out of commission because of mechanical problems and the department has used a city station wagon or a sedan.

The frequent breakdowns are “not life-threatening,” Hackamack asserted. “Paramedics are an extension of a doctor’s hands. Before they even begin to transport a person, they will stabilize them on the scene,” Hackamack said.

Nevertheless, he added that “the prolonged delay (in a breakdown) is embarrassing and we don’t like it to happen.”

Last year a staff committee was set up by City Manager David Thompson to look into the Fire Department’s budget request to buy another ambulance. The committee, including the director of finance and the director of public works, recommended against funding another rescue unit because they felt the reserve ambulance could last another year.

But it deteriorated faster than the staff had expected, Thompson said, and this week the city council unanimously agreed that funds were needed and approved the purchase. Reserve funds will be used to pay for it.

The city hopes to buy the additional ambulance from the Redondo Beach Fire Department, which replaces vehicles every five years and will be selling an ambulance early next year. Redondo Beach Fire Chief Jim Black said the 1983 Chevrolet that Manhattan Beach officials are interested in buying is in excellent condition. “It’s just like new,” he said.

In addition to buying another ambulance, the Manhattan Beach Fire Department also plans to remount its main ambulance on a new truck chassis and refurbish the patient compartment.