Newtown Ambulance Volunteers

Take On Garner Prison Emergency Calls

By Steve Bigham

The Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps began responding earlier this month to all medical calls at Garner Correctional Facility. It marked the first time since the 1993 riot that Newtown volunteers entered the heavily guarded maximum-security prison to transport a patient.

  The corps responded to its first call at the prison November 4 when a prisoner was having difficulty breathing. It has made three trips back there since.

The town’s volunteer ambulance service is also now responding to all calls at Fairfield Hills. Previously, Danbury Ambulance had responded to all prison and Fairfield Hills 911 calls. However, a ruling by the state board of health last June assigned Newtown as the primary service provider for the area. The changeover did not take effect until three weeks ago.

“Danbury Ambulance had it for a number of years. They were doing transportation for both facilities because they were both state-owned facilities,” explained Ambulance Corps Chief Kristen Peterson. “They were doing most of the transports anyway, so we said ‘go ahead, you take the responsibility.’ But then Fairfield Hills closed down and the public started using the grounds more and more for sports, town government, etc. It made sense to pursue getting it back.”

That pursuit started a number of years ago when Newtown Ambulance made an official request to get the state hospital and prison back under its jurisdiction. After several hearings, the state finally agreed that Newtown Ambulance Corps should cover the area, ruling that it would provide quicker response times. It recently took Danbury Ambulance 59 minutes to respond to a call at Garner prison.

The shift in coverage comes at an ideal time since the town appears to be on the verge of purchasing Fairfield Hills from the state.

“My feeling was the local ambulance corps would be able to respond much quicker than having Danbury Ambulance come all the way from Danbury,” said First Selectman Herb Rosenthal, who supported Newtown Ambulance during the state hearings.

Mr Rosenthal said he received several letters from former Garner warden Remi Acosta, as well as some correctional officers, requesting that Newtown Ambulance take over coverage of the facility.

Newtown Ambulance will only be responding to “life-threatening” medical calls at the prison, according to Chief Peterson. “The prison has its own medical facility. We are only transporting people in very critical condition.”

In those cases when a prisoner is transported, a correctional officer will ride along with the EMTs, while a second officer will follow closely behind in a second vehicle.

The corps has been oriented to the policy on responding to the prison. The next step is a tour of the facility, Chief Peterson said. “Those members who have responded have not expressed any sense of uncomfortability. There may be some [EMTs] who will choose not to respond there. It’s not like you’re walking into a riot situation, though. It’s a very controlled environment.”

Ambulance Corp Welcomes New Challenge

Already overloaded, the added responsibility of Garner and Fairfield Hills will generate at least another 100 calls per year. However, members welcome the addition of the two facilities.

“We want to be able to cover all of Newtown. It gives us a sense of not leaving anything open,” Chief Peterson said.

 The Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps responded to a record number of calls during the first six months of this year – 849 calls from January through July of 2000. It is on pace to hit 1,700 calls for the year, which would far surpass 1999’s record year of 1,506.

The continued growth of the community has played a role (after Danbury, Newtown has the highest volume of emergency calls in the region), but the largest reasons for the increase has been added calls to Lockwood Lodge/Ashlar of Newtown and Cornerstone of Eagle Hill. Those facilities had been previously been served by Danbury Ambulance.

The good news is that the corps’ membership is now at an all-time high of 73 people.

Despite the long history of success in the ambulance corps (established in 1947), Danbury Hospital threatened its existence a year ago. Officials there authorized the hospital’s own for-profit ambulance service to transport patients when arriving at the scene before the volunteer service. In the eyes of local EMTs, it was an attempt to undermine the local volunteer service.

 In the end, however, Newtown signed a contract with Danbury Ambulance last September that allowed for paramedic responses only. The Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps is alive and well and has continued to log some of the best response times in the area.

Newtown’s EMTs have a lot of road to cover. At 60 square miles, Newtown is the second largest town in the state. It has 400 miles of incorporated roads and a 10-mile stretch of Interstate 84 within its borders.

Members of the Newtown Ambulance Association, which governs the ambulance corps, last year indicated they were interested in moving the ambulance garage to Fairfield Hills. However, the ambulance corps, which is made up of the actual EMTs, says “no way.” They prefer to stay at the existing location at 47 Main Street even though Fairfield Hills is considered a more central location.

Mr Rosenthal has stated that Fairfield Hills might be a more centralized location for townwide emergency response. However, some corps members say Fairfield Hills is not ideal at all.

“It might help with our response time to Sandy Hook, but that’s the only place,” noted one corps member.

Some members believe trying to negotiate an ambulance through Fairfield Hills might lengthen some response times.