By Tom Bailey Jr.
Lela Garlington contributed to this story
The Commercial Appeal
Copyright 2007 The Commercial Appeal, Inc.
SHELBY COUNTY, Tenn. — Like a new marriage, private ambulance crews and firefighters are starting a new life together at fire stations in Germantown and Collierville.
The new, improved and more expensive contract between Shelby County and Rural/Metro not only puts more ambulances on the street, it shelters them and their crews in the suburbs’ firehouses.
At noon Wednesday, for example, a couple of Rural/Metro paramedics were eating lunch at Collierville’s Fire Station No. 3 while their ambulance sat in the bay.
The Rural/Metro unit moved in July 5 to the station at Peterson Lake and Shelton roads, leaving its old, rented spot at Eastley and Washington near Town Square.
Within 45 days, Rural/Metro will station a second ambulance in Collierville, said Mark King, chief of administration for the Fire Department.
The second unit will be housed at Fire Station No. 1 on Town Square.
Under the new, $2.9 million contract, Rural/Metro is increasing from six to 12 ambulances to cover all of Shelby County except Memphis and Bartlett.
Another four units will be added during peak hours.
The ambulance crews must follow the same rules of the station that firefighters adhere to, King said.
Up by 6:30 a.m.
Straighten the bed.
Shirts tucked in.
Greet all visitors.
Visitors leave by 9 p.m.
Sweep, mop, clean windows and bathrooms, and empty the dishwasher just like the firefighters.
“They are just getting used to the rules,” he said. “Like somebody living in a house adheres to curfew rules.”
To make room in the bay for the ambulance at Station No. 3, a pickup was moved to the parking lot.
At the Town Square station, an antique fire wagon will have to be moved.
The Memphis Fire Museum has expressed interest in borrowing the wagon for six months, King said.
Rural/Metro will have 120 days to station all 12 ambulances across the county.
Rural/Metro last week moved a unit into Germantown Fire Station No. 92 at 8925 Dogwood Road next to Dogwood Elementary.
Firefighters there made a run the other day to an incident involving possible injuries.
A Rural/Metro ambulance pulled out of the fire station within seconds of the firetruck.
“They were right behind us,” said a grateful Fire Department Lt. Charlie Lanier.
“It is a change for that station but it’s nothing new for us,” Fire Chief Dennis Wolf said.
The city has housed an ambulance at Germantown Station No. 91 for more than 30 years.
Plans are to put an ambulance north of Collierville at county Station No. 61 on Macon Road, west of Collierville-Arlington.
King said an ambulance will remain southwest of Collierville at the Shelby County fire station at Shelby Drive and Forest Hill-Irene.