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Huron Expositor, 2007-02-14, Page 11The Huron Expositor • February 14, 2007 Page 11 News Huron East supports First Response in Brussels Longer ambulance wait times lead to firefighters asking to sign agreement Susan H u n d e r t m a r k Debating whether or not the resulting ambulance service to Brussels will get even worse, Huron East council voted to support the Brussels Fire Department's plan to sign a First Response agreement with Huron County. A First Response agree- ment would a l l o w Brussels fire- fighters to respond to medical emergencies such as car- diac arrest, unconscious patients and motor vehi- cle, construc- tion, industri- al or agricul- tural acci- dents. While Brussels fire- fighters received First Response training in the spring of 2005 and yearly re -certifica- tion ever since, the agree- ment would allow the fire department to fill the time gap between a local emer- gency and the time it takes for Huron County ambu- lances to arrive on scene. Huron East Fire Chief Marty Bedard told council that the average response time to Brussels was 24 minutes in 2004, compared to 18 minutes to the rest of the county. He said he wasn't able to get updated times. Deputy -Mayor Bernie MacLellan asked for the updated times, guessing that Brussels is lately get- ting much better service from the ambulances. "I'm not sure First Response is the way to go for the firefighters. Everyone in the county pays the bill for the ambulance and our firefighters signed on as volunteer firefighters, not ambulance attendants - that isn't their job," he said. MacLellan also remarked that with First Response, Huron East would be paying twice - once for the county ambulance and once for the local firefighters. Tuckersmith Coun. Larry McGrath agreed with MacLellan, adding that when the province cuts its funding to healthcare and ambulance services and municipalities step in to fill the gap, the province will never restore its previous levels of fund- ing. 'The boys up there asked for it - that's the long and short of it. It's just a matter of endorsing what they want to do,' -- Huron East Mayor joe Seili " T h e health of our citizens is important. I would lean to letting them (the B russels firefighters) do as much as they can," responded S eaforth Coun. Bob Fisher. "Firefighters want to help their com- / munity - it's part of what they are, added McKillop Coun. Bill Siemon. Seaforth Coun. Joe Steffler predicted that the more Huron East does, the worse the ambulance service to Brussels will be. And, he complained that he'd heard ambu- lances are forbidden to go more than 20 km/h over the speed limit. "It's very embarrass- ing to run a Code 4 and the cars are passing you," said Steffler. Mayor Joe Seili agreed saying the ambulance attendants are "hauled in for it" if the GPS (global positioning sys- tem) spots them going more than 20 km/h over the speed limit. "You can get from Kinburn to Brussels at 110 km/h faster than you can from Wingham at 110 km/h. I tried it," said Seili. Brussels Coun. Frank Stretton said the ambu- lance frequently takes longer than half an hour to get to Brussels. "We need to have the local guys (firefighters) get- ting there right away. Seaforth gets the ambu- lance in five minutes. Half an hour is not good enough for my citizens," he said. Bedard said the Brussels firefighters have been talk- ing about signing a First Response agreement for the past six months and they unanimously agreed to take the step. "The boys up there asked for it - that's the long and the short of it. It's just a matter of us endorsing what they want to do," said Seili. "Besides, what's the value of one person's life?" he said. Thinking about your RSP? Feel secure knowing we're here to help. 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