Mayor Barbara Roden said she was sad and frustrated when she heard about Sunday’s distressing event, in which an ambulance took nearly 30 minutes to reach a man who had collapsed while walking his dog. The man died at the scene.
Roden said a similar event happened about a month ago and, in both incidents, the volunteer fire department received a phone call asking if they could attend.
Roden said Ashcroft’s volunteer firefighters are not trained as medical first responders, but the fire chief decided to go as a private citizen to assist.
In the wake of these incidents, Roden said she has heard talk about offering first responder medical training to volunteer firefighters in smaller communities, something she said is “a band-aid solution.”
“It’s one of those things that on the surface sounds like a great idea. And to me, you don’t have to dig very deep to realize this is just going to put an enormous, enormous amount of pressure and stress on our volunteer firefighters,” Roden said.
Roden said Ashcroft Fire Rescue does highway rescues, but members of the volunteer department can opt out of such calls.
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