Fire volunteers push in new ambulance
Deputy Chief Charlotte Pegoraro has the steering wheel Tuesday evening as East Side Fire District volunteers and community members participate in a traditional "push-in" ceremony to celebrate the addition of an ambulance to East Side's emergency vehicles.
Courtesy of East Side Fire District
Friends and volunteers of East Side Fire District evening "push in" a new ambulance Tuesday into the Arrow Point Station during a firefighting tradition dating back to the 1800s.
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East Side Fire District and community members initiated a newly acquired ambulance Tuesday with a traditional push-in ceremony.
The ambulance is one of four recently acquired by Kootenai County Emergency Medical Services System to better serve the community. East Side Fire's ambulance will be housed at the Arrow Point Station and will improve transport time to the hospital for many medical emergency patients in the district.
"This is another significant milestone for East Side Fire District," Fire Chief Jerry Lynn said in a news release. "We’ve been working hard for the last two years on the logistics to obtain an ambulance. We’re confident it will make a positive impact to our residents and visitors to the east side of Lake Coeur d’Alene.”
In the 1800s, when fire crews returned from fire incidents, the horse-drawn apparatus could not be backed into the fire house by the animals, so firefighters and community members had to manually push the vehicles into the bays. When motorized fire engines became the norm, crews no longer needed to push vehicles into the fire house.
In honor of those early days of firefighting, fire departments traditionally hold push-in ceremonies when receiving a new apparatus.
East Side Fire District currently has 15 volunteers EMTs, two of whom are nationally certified at the advanced level, which will enable East Side to provide not only basic care, but limited advanced emergency medical care and transportation for critical patients who access the emergency medical system.
“East Side Fire District continues to grow and change to provide the best medical services possible to the district," Deputy Chief Charlotte Pegoraro said. "Rural communities like ours rarely have the resources that East Side Fire District can provide, and that’s due to the hard work and dedication that we have developed over the years with fast and quality EMS response and now faster transport capabilities."
