SUNBURY– When you think of the Americus Hose Company in Sunbury you think of your typical volunteer fire company, but this nearly 124 year old company is much more than that, these days. The Americus Community Ambulance service started in 1943 and has expanded from there. Once a volunteer service, the paid ambulance service now is the biggest part of the Americus annual budget says Bob Hare, Director of Operations, “Our annual budget for our ambulance side is close to $1.5 million and probably close to $700,000 of that is to pay our employees to go out and provide the services to our community.”
The Americus Ambulance service serves the City of Sunbury and surrounding areas and receives about 3,500 calls per year says Hare, “We provide basic and advanced life support services here. We have EMTs and paramedics. The EMTs do the basic life support, we have our paramedics that can do the advanced stuff such as IV’s, defibrillation, interpret EKG’s, intubate patients when need be and administer medication.”
The ambulance side of the Americus is run like a business with little to no volunteer help says Hare, ” In today’s age and training and all the requirements that are needed for your EMS certification whether it be for an EMT or a paramedic has just gotten to be so great that volunteers anymore especially on the EMS side are dwindling or pretty much nonexistent.”
The Americus houses five ambulances, two squad trucks, and one platform or ladder truck. The business side of the company makes its profits from serving the community with its ambulances and from their social club. You will be able to hear the full interview with Bob Hare on an upcoming edition of the Sunrise program. (Sarah Benek)
