South Hero Rescue welcomes new ambulance, ‘new era’
SOUTH HERO – After two years of waiting, South Hero Rescue finally has its new ambulance.
The local rescue service received its new ambulance earlier this week after initially agreeing to purchase the vehicle two years prior. Brandishing blue and gold details, as well as a new logo, local officials said the ambulance represented a “new era” for South Hero Rescue.
“It’s kind of like the beginning of a new era for South Hero,” Troy Toth, the rescue service’s assistant chief and one of its two training officers, said. “We’ve really modernized and become a model department.”
According to South Hero Rescue’s leaders, the ambulance was both larger and more modern than the vehicle it replaced. Officials highlighted features like its larger size, its all-wheel drive and some of the safety features included within the ambulance’s patient compartment.
The ambulance, according to South Hero Rescue, would be better suited for South Hero, where longer driveways and winter weather sometimes hampered responses in their older, two-wheel drive vehicle.
“It’s bigger, by several feet,” Cody Fiala, the rescue service’s vice president, told The Islander. “It’s also taller, which some of our members really appreciate.”
“This is a real safety improvement,” added Jennifer Schulz, the rescue service’s chief.
According to rescue officials, the new ambulance had cost South Hero Rescue around $340,000. Most of the funding for the ambulance’s purchase had come through the Town of South Hero’s annual allocation to the rescue service, with some additional money gleaned from South Hero Rescue’s reserve funding and the sale of their former ambulance to Missisquoi Valley Rescue in Swanton.
While members of South Hero Rescue agreed it had been time to replace their older ambulance, built from a cab and chassis dating back to 2017 with an even older patient compartment manufactured in 2007, the rescue service’s leaders said the former ambulance had served South Hero well.
“You can just imagine what we’ve seen,” Schulz, South Hero Rescue’s chief, told The Islander. “Tragedy, but also good days, where we’ve saved lives.”