GUILFORD – The Guilford Fire Department Emergency Squad recently took delivery of a new ambulance. The 2006 Ford F450 was purchased from Exceptional Emergency Vehicles and went into service on Feb. 6. The 15 members of the Guilford Emergency Squad include Advanced Life Support and Basic Life Support emergency Medical Technicians as well as three drivers.

New NYS Emergency Service protocols require certain types of call responses to transport to pre-designated hospitals such as Area Trauma Centers such as Wilson Memorial Regional Medical Center in Binghamton or the burn center at University Hospital SUNY Health Science Center. The ambulance which was replaced served the Guilford Emergency Squads response area well for 15 years, and although it continued to respond, needed upgrading to continue serving the community.

The Guilford Fire Department has recently completed a grant it received from the Assistance to Firefighters Grants Operations and Firefighter Safety Program. The Assistance to Firefighters Grants program is designed to meet the firefighting and emergency response needs of fire departments and emergency medical services organizations. The Assistance to Firefighters Grants program has helped firefighters and other first responders to obtain critically needed equipment, protective gear, emergency vehicles, training, and other resources needed to protect the public and emergency personnel from fire and related hazards. The National Preparedness Directorate in the Federal Emergency Management Agency administers the grants in cooperation with the U.S. Fire Administration

The Guilford Fire Department purchased equipment that allows for a effective response to emergencies and protects responding personnel in compliance with current NFPA standards. With grant money and a 5% local matching share the Guilford Fire Department was able to purchase the following:

• 35 sets of firefighter Personal Protective Equipment and 1 set of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for EMS personnel, 35 Motorola Minitor V pagers, 14 Motorola Ht 1250 Portable radios and 10 complete SCBA (air packs) with voice amplification face pieces, spare face pieces/voice amplification/spare cylinders.