The Upper Merion Township Fire Department is celebrating National EMS Week and the fact that the department has been seeing faster response times, writes Kim Hudson for CBS News Philadelphia.
The department is crediting the graduation of 12 new professional firefighters and emergency medical technicians within the department for those faster response times.
According to Upper Merion Fire Chief James Johnson, prior to the May 3 graduation date, the department had just one shift with professional firefighters and EMTs along with on-call volunteers.
During those moments, the response time was more than eight minutes on average.
“So by having that second unit, we’ve actually reduced those response times down into the 5-minute 20-second area,” he said.
The new positions were able to be created thanks to a three-year FEMA grant.
Joshua DePietro is one of the 12 new members of the department, where he is living out his dream.
He helps to supplement about 50 volunteer first responders who cover the community of more than 35,000 people.
“We can help them out, they help us out,” DePietro said. “And it creates better coverage for the township at whole.”
Read more about the new and improved Upper Merion Township Fire Department in CBS News Philadelphia.
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