Oxnard : Trailer Transformed Into Big Ambulance

A trailer that once housed a one-hour photo developing business has been transformed into a state-of-the-art ambulance that can transport as many as eight patients at a time.

Called a “modular transport unit,” the ambulance is the first--and largest--of its kind to be licensed by the California Highway Patrol, officials said.

The ambulance, which was unveiled Thursday in Oxnard, has its own power, oxygen and water supplies, a dispatch center, advanced life-support services and a television monitor and antenna. The 38-foot vehicle will be pulled by a Ford pickup truck.

The ambulance is owned by Gold Coast Ambulance Services, which serves Oxnard, Port Hueneme and parts of unincorporated Ventura County. The company designed the ambulance to help with St. Johns Regional Medical Center’s Oct. 24 move from its F Street building to its new facility on Rose Avenue, said Steve Kaufmann, an emergency medical technician with Gold Coast.

During the St. Johns move, the ambulance will transport 150 patients a little more than 2 miles over a 12-hour period. The ambulance can carry up to three patients and their hospital beds at a time, or up to eight patients on stretchers.

“Anything that would be in a critical care unit, such as heart pumps, ventilator and chest tubes, will be loaded onto the trailer,” Kaufmann said.

Gold Coast employees rebuilt the trailer, which the company now values at $150,000.

Kaufmann said the ambulance will be used for large-scale emergencies such as care and treatment of firefighters and for any other disasters or accidents throughout Ventura County and Southern California.

“It could have played a key role in the Sea Cliff incident,” Kaufmann said about the 1991 train derailment and hazardous waste spill.

Barbara Brodfuehrer, an administrator with Ventura County’s Emergency Medical Services, said the ambulance is needed. “We have a unit now that can transport more than two patients if there’s a disaster,” she said.

But Kaufmann said the ambulance will not be used to answer “everyday 911 calls.”

“We’re not going to a heart attack with this ambulance,” Kaufmann said. “I think if this shows up people will say, ‘We didn’t call for a camping trailer.’ ”