Peoria Fire department gets medical upgrades

The Peoria Fire Department is upgrading its station on SW Jefferson Avenue with an Advanced Life Support fire truck.The station’s ALS engine has new medical and emergency-response equipment, and is staffed by one paramedic and two other medical personnel.  Josh Martin is with the Peoria Fire Department. He says the new ALS fire engine is more efficient for patients:“We can perform a 12-lead, which is a more in-depth look at the heart. We can have the IV started, where normally we can only do the basic procedures. So, when we get them to the hospital, we literally let the nurse, doctor know what’s going on and from there, they don’t do a whole lot. They draw blood, they run some tests, but a lot of the patient care is done before they even get to the hospital.”Martin also says the ALS Engine number Four started running last week:“I believe in the first two days it went ALS, I believe they already had 15 ALS calls. This is a high call-volume area. I believe Engine Four runs the second most amount of calls in the city, so it’s definitely going to be used, and it’s definitely going to save lives.”This is the third Peoria Fire Department engine to receive the ALS upgrade. Martin says the fire department hopes to eventually house ALS engines in each of the 17 Peoria fire stations.