CENTRAL : WESTMINSTER : Ambulance Service Makes First Run

The first call came less than two hours into their shift Monday.

For Bryan James and Matt Gordon, the excitement momentarily turned to nervousness as they prepared for their first run as ambulance drivers.

With sirens blaring, James, 22, took the ambulance out of Station 1 on Westminster Boulevard while Gordon, 20, prepared the stretcher and other equipment under the watchful eyes of training officers who rode along.

In little time, they reached their patient, an elderly woman suffering from chest pains, who was taken to Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center.

“It’s dangerous, but it’s fun,” said James, who hopes that his experience as an ambulance driver will help him become a firefighter some day.

James and Gordon work for Superior Ambulance, a Santa Ana-based company that provides drivers for the city ambulance service that began this week. The drivers, not city employees, are under the supervision of Fire Department officials, who are running the ambulance program.

Ten other full-time and six alternate drivers have been provided by Superior Ambulance under a renewable six-month contract that will cost the city $144,000, officials said.

The ambulance program, only the second of its kind after that of Huntington Beach in Orange County, will improve the medical response capabilities of the city and generate additional income, officials said.

“We’re very excited,” said Mayor Charles V. Smith. “This will save lives because it will cut considerably the time to get victims to hospitals.”

Under the program, one ambulance will be housed at Station 1 at 7351 Westminster Blvd. and another at Station 2 at 15061 Moran St. An ambulance will accompany the paramedics responding to a medical emergency, unlike in the past when private ambulances would arrive 10 or more minutes after the paramedics.

“We’re testing new waters here,” said Capt. Craig Campbell, the Westminster Fire Department training officer. “We’ll evaluate (the program) and make some changes, if necessary.”

The city is using two used ambulances and is anticipating the arrival in April of two new ambulances from an El Monte company. Last year, the city spent $243,000 to buy the new ambulances, paramedic equipment, communication and safety equipment, and the uniforms and training for the ambulance drivers. Officials hope to make $250,000 a year from offering the service.

Ambulance fees will range from $225 to $300, depending on whether the patient needs medication on the way to the hospital. There will be additional charges for mileage, night calls or use of oxygen.

Officials of the Westminster Firefighters Assn. Local 2425, who have opposed the changes in the Fire Department, said paramedic services will not improve unless the city hires more firefighters and paramedics.

“They hired ambulance drivers, not firefighters,” said Mike Garrison, a director of the firefighters union, who said the city needs 21 firefighters more to add to its current 63-man force.

But for James and Gordon, who both have taken fire services courses at Rancho Santiago College in Santa Ana, driving an ambulance is the closest to driving a fire engine.

“I have my foot in the door,” said Gordon, whose father is a 14-year veteran at the Fullerton Fire Department.