Lincoln to get an ambulance based at fire station

A community-led initiative will see an ambulance based at Lincoln.

It is likely the ambulance will be on call every day from 10am-10pm.

St John is working with Fire and Emergency New Zealand over the project.  Discussions are being held about when it will be up and running.

The ambulance will be based at the Lincoln Fire Station.

Said FENZ area commander Dave Berry: “It’s actually a local community initiative and they approached us and I offered the station as a place to put it.

“It will be based in Lincoln but used around the area.”

Berry said it is good to have extra support for medical calls in Lincoln.

“All of the firefighters are trained in responding to medical calls but it is always good to have some extra knowledge behind you.

“We attend any purple calls which are cardiac arrests and things like that and also motor vehicle accidents where we do basic treatment of patients, extracting and things like that.”

Last year the Lincoln Volunteer Fire Brigade responded to 54 motor vehicle accidents and 17 medical calls.

Currently there are ambulances based in Rolleston and Darfield.

Last year, the station in Rolleston became staffed 24/7, meaning it has one ambulance operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and a second ambulance on a 12-hour day shift from mid-morning to mid-evening.