By Kevin Pearson
The Press Enterprise
HEMET, Calif. — A new deal will help ambulances respond faster to a significant portion of Hemet by allowing American Medical Response use an abandoned fire station on the east side of the city.
The Hemet City Council approved the contract Tuesday, June 12, and AMR is expected to begin moving into the old Fire Station 5 sometime in the coming weeks.
The station, an old double-wide mobile home on Hemet Street, was closed several years ago as part of the city’s cost-cutting measures. No permanent fire station could be built on the site because it is too close to an earthquake fault line.
“This is a win-win situation for the city of Hemet and AMR,” Fire Chief Joe Morris said.
AMR will pay the city $3,600 annually - which will essentially cover utilities - and be allowed to house an ambulance crew at the site. That two-man crew will work a 24-hour shift, necessitating the need for sleeping quarters.
AMR’s main ambulance hub is downtown, near Hemet’s Fire Station 1, though the rigs often roam around town so they can respond to emergencies faster.
Since the closure of Station 5, residents and city officials have been concerned about slower response times to eastern Hemet. It can take an ambulance more than 12 minutes to get to the east side of town from Station 1.
Jack Hansen, AMR’s operations manager for the region, said the ambulance will provide coverage in the eastern portion of the city, the unincorporated Valle Vista neighborhood and some of the surrounding area.
A second unit will remain in the area but serve in a more mobile capacity and not be at the station full time.
“This is good for both of us,” Hansen said. “It provides good housing for our crews on that east end, right in that peninsula the city has.”
Hansen said that out of respect for the neighbors of the station, the ambulance will refrain from using lights and sirens while it is on Hemet Street but will turn those on once it hits either Florida Avenue to the south or Lincoln Avenue to the north.
Hemet Councilman Larry Smith said the contract was a strong public-private partnership and he hoped that when future fire stations are built, they will have an ambulance bay to further reduce response times.
“This is an abandoned, empty building that will never be a fire station again,” Smith said. “This is a good use of the facility. Let’s see if this is not a prototype.
“Should we have a station go forward, we can configure it for the type of 21st-century medical response. It’s high time we get configured to match the type of calls we get and this is a step in the right direction.”
Follow Kevin Pearson on Twitter @pe_kevinpearson or online at blog.pe.com/Hemet
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