FILLMORE : New Ambulance Put Into Service

For the first time in more than 10 years, Fillmore residents will make emergency trips to the hospital in a new ambulance.

Pruner Health Services Inc. has purchased a $54,000 ambulance that began transporting patients in Fillmore this week.

Steven Murphy, Pruner’s chief administrator, said the ambulance responds to an average of 70 calls a month.

Patients from the Fillmore area are taken to Santa Paula Memorial Hospital, the nearest emergency medical center. Trips to the hospital from unincorporated areas around the city, and from Piru 10 miles to the east, take from 15 to 30 minutes under ideal circumstances, the Pruner dispatch office said.

“The fact that they are farther out from the hospital and more isolated from a backup ambulance was a good argument that the vehicle there should be the most dependable,” Murphy said.

Fillmore Fire Chief Pat Askren said that previous companies sent ambulances to the city after they had worked many miles on other routes.

“You knew they were basically safe, because ambulances are inspected regularly by the Highway Patrol,” Askren said. “But we often ride in the back of the ambulance on the way to the hospital, and in some of the older models, it was a little nerve-racking.”

Askren said he did not know of any instance when an ambulance broke down with a patient on board. But he said city officials are pleased to have a more dependable vehicle.