Flint to add another ambulance, life saving equipment to fire dept.

FLINT, Mich. (WNEM) – Nearly $1 million will help first responders in the City of Flint bring in more resources to help save lives.

In less than a year, the department’s ambulance service brought in $900,000 in revenue, with more money expected to come in by January. The department plans to expand its services even further in the community.

Flint Fire Chief Theron Wiggins said he is looking to change course when it comes to responding to overdoses and the opioid crisis in Flint.

“The situation is a very critical four to six minutes,” said Wiggins. “That person is legally dead. We have a rule that we get out of our station within two minutes and then we respond to the scene all together between seven and eight minutes. We’re there on that scene in the City of Flint.”

The city having its own dedicated ambulances has played a large role. The fire department usually keeps two in service, cycling a third in the rotation.

Since the service launched in October, Wiggins said they’ve responded to 3,000 calls, or 20 per day, and brought in $900,000 in revenue to the city. Soon, the service will be able to do even more.

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“Because of opioid money that we’re getting from opioid grants, we’re able to buy another brand-new ambulance, which is in the manufacturing stage right now,” said Wiggins. “So we’re getting a fourth ambulance and we’re excited about that.”

Wiggins said the fourth ambulance will allow the department to have three running at one time, and more ambulances mean less wait times.

“With the opioid crisis, we’re able to get to them quicker, give them Narcan and to help them through that situation,” said Wiggins.

But the ambulance fleet isn’t the only aspect of the fire department that’s growing.

“We’re also getting the Stryker equipment,” said Wiggins. “What that is, is chest compressions will be done automatically with a machine instead of us all day long trying to do chest compressions. We have a machine, opioid was able to get them for us and those machines are $30,000 apiece. We have 3 on order as we speak.”

Wiggins is also hoping to add more bodies to their staff. He asked the finance department to hire 20 more people, including part-time firefighters and emergency medical technicians.

“I came in 22, the fall of 2022, we had about 68 people on roll. Now we have on roll up to 93 people in the fire department,” said Wiggins. “And that’s what the relief is. Before we hired in the up to 93, there was no relief, and everybody was mandated to work overtime. Well, overtime is almost nothing in the fire department today.”

Down the road, Wiggins tells TV5 he’d love to also add advanced life support and paramedics to the department’s fleet. He expects the fourth ambulance to arrive in the next three to four months.

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