Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:

Elmhurst Fire Department officials introduced their new advanced life-support rapid-response vehicle Saturday.

The new utility vehicle, a Ford Explorer provided under a contract with Metro Paramedic Services and staffed around the clock by one paramedic, is intended to fill a small gap in city ambulance coverage.

City officials call the new vehicle more nimble than either an ambulance or a fire engine, and therefore able to reach an accident or illness site more quickly, but acknowledge the vehicle cannot be used to transport a patient to a health care facility.

The city already contracts with Metro for two ambulances, each staffed by two paramedic. Those ambulances cover about 97 percent of city medical emergency calls in under four minutes. But after some city residents raised concerns that fire engines sometimes reach medical emergencies ahead of the ambulances, aldermen on the city’s public affairs and safety committee agreed to look at emergency response times and options.

Elmhurst is one of the first communities in the area to use this approach. Naperville has two such vehicles, but they are used in different ways, according to Naperville Deputy Chief Andy Dina.

The Naperville vehicles are also manned by one person, but that person is not necessarily a paramedic.  The vehicles typically respond to such non-emergency situations as elevator alarms, trouble alarms on fire systems, and carbon monoxide alarms where there’s no illness. The person on the rig can also respond to ambulance calls to provide an extra set of hands

“We are on the cutting edge here in Elmhurst, providing paramedics and an advanced support rapid response vehicle,” explained Fire Chief Thomas Freeman.

“The rapid response vehicle went on four calls today,” Elmhurst Mayor Steve Morley said Monday. “It got to two of those calls before the ambulance and in both of those were able to assess and call off the ambulances.”

One ambulance is quartered in each of the city’s two firehouses. The mayor noted that when either of those rigs goes out on a call, Rescue 1 will move into place in the open firehouse to provide quick response to another emergency.

Elmhurst union firefighters and at least one resident have told committee members they believe adding a certified paramedic firefighter to each shift at each fire station would be the most effective way to provide better coverage. But Freeman and Grabowski have said that approach could come with scheduling problems and some unknown costs in terms of pay and benefits.

Tags: ALS Rapid Response vehicle, chicagoareafire.com, Elmhurst FD initiates ALS Rapid Response unit, Elmhurst FD Rescue 1, Elmhurst Fire Department, Metro Paramedic Services