Ambulance Enroute To Nursing Home Fills With Smoke

By Andrew Gorosko

An American Medical Response (AMR) ambulance that was making a routine transport of a 93-year-old woman from Waterbury Hospital to the Ashlar of Newtown nursing home at 139 Toddy Hill Road at about 2:12 pm January 25 apparently developed a diesel fuel leak, resulting in the ambulance filling with thick white smoke, fire officials said.

The two AMR emergency medical technicians who were in the van-style ambulance, however, managed to arrive at the nursing home, after which Botsford firefighters and Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps members were called to the scene, said Botsford Fire Chief Wayne Ciaccia.

Using two ambulances, Newtown ambulance staffers transported the unidentified elderly woman and the two unidentified AMR medical technicians to Danbury Hospital to be checked for smoke exposure as a precautionary measure, Chief Ciaccia said.

Following the incident, the elderly woman was brought into the nursing home, after which she was placed in an ambulance and transported to Danbury Hospital. The two medical technicians were able to enter a second ambulance under their own power.

The malfunctioning AMR ambulance was then loaded onto a flatbed wrecker for transport for repair work.