As California wildfires rage across the state this week, AMR ambulance and paramedic crews from throughout Arizona have deployed to the impacted areas to help with disaster response.
On Wednesday, AMR Southern Arizona deployed seven ambulances to the fire-swept region, staffed by 11 emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and three paramedics.
These Tucson-based units thus far have been joined by 20 Advanced Life Support ambulances from AMR Central Arizona, three ambulances from River Medical in the Kingman/Lake Havasu City area, a Basic Life Support ambulance from Prescott and three ambulances from Rural Metro Fire stationed in the Yuma area.
In total as of Friday, AMR has 69 staffers and 34 emergency response units from Arizona currently helping emergency response efforts in northern California.
“All of us at AMR in Arizona could not be more proud of how our people have stepped up to help in Northern California in response to the fires that have swept through the Sonoma and the Napa region,” said Glenn Kasprzyk, AMR’s Regional Chief Operations Officer for Arizona. “These fires are truly tragic. We want to be there to support our fellow public safety workers and the residents who have been so devastated. On the heels of our recent responses to the hurricanes in the south and the Las Vegas shooting, this has been a challenge. But again, our paramedics, EMTs and fire fighters have done everything we’ve asked of them and much more.”
The Arizona-based crews join AMR team members from California and across the country in responding to the wildfires. As of Friday morning, AMR – the nation’s leading provider of medical transportation and community-based mobile healthcare – had thus far deployed hundreds of California-based team members, plus more than 100 ground ambulances and 200 crews of paramedics and EMTs from across the U.S., 15 paratransit vehicles, an Operations Incident Management Team and scores of Communications team members.
