Source: Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton, MA)
By ERIN KELLY-DILL Staff Writer
CUMMINGTON, MA – When emergency medical technicians Joe Sabourin and Dave Alvord, both of Plainfield, went off duty at midnight Friday, it was also the final shift for the Cummington Ambulance.
Emergency medical care will now be provided to Cummington and Plainfield by Highland Ambulance. Highland will also cover Goshen, Chesterfield, Williamsburg and Ashfield with ambulances housed in Goshen and Ashfield.
Cummington Ambulance Director Bernie Forgea said that the demographics of Cummington and Plainfield have changed over the last 30 years, making it difficult to staff a volunteer ambulance around the clock. ”The purpose is different here now,” Forgea said, ”and the expectations have changed dramatically over time. That impacts what you do.”
Volunteerism is waning nationally. said Forgea, who is Cummington’s fire chief. ”We went out on top so we can be proud of it,” he said.
Since 1973 there has never been a missed call or an unmanned shift – 24 hours a day, seven days a week. ”That’s a huge accomplishment,” he said.
Although 1973 marked the beginning of round-the-clock coverage, the service actually began in 1952. Cummington Ambulance was created in response to a New Year’s Eve car accident in Plainfield in which a local resident was killed.
The Grange gave the Fire Department funds to purchase a 1939 Cadillac LaSalle, which could be bought for about $600 at the time, Forgea said. Plainfield soon joined, providing its own volunteers.
Calls were dispatched using ”the red phone system,” said Forgea, which involved seven phones placed in Cummington in a variety of well-chosen locations. The red phones were the roots of the phone tree that called the ambulance volunteers, who had advanced first aid training.
”In those days it (Cummington) was a different place,” said Forgea. ”The only thing to do was the Fire Department.”
Local departments regularly held musters. ”Virtually every young man in these towns belonged to a muster team,” Forgea said.
Forgea went out in his first ambulance call as a teenager in 1958, and was officially old enough to serve in 1960.
In 1973, state law required new standards for ambulances. A state grant gave the towns half of the $18,000 needed for a compliant ambulance, and voters in both towns gave the fledgling Cummington Ambulance the rest.
Other regulations required that EMTs staff the ambulance, and many Hilltown residents traveled to Leeds to complete the rigorous training that allowed them to continue. Forgea and his brother, Dennis Forgea, the town’s police chief, were two of the first to receive their certification. They are the last remaining members of the original 1973 volunteers.
Backup service
Cummington and Plainfield will continue to operate ambulances that will act as backup to Highland.
Cummington’s ambulance will be a Class II, which does not have the same staffing requirements as a Class I and can be operated by first responders as well as EMTs. Plainfield currently operates a Class V ambulance, but had applied for Class II status.
Forgea said volunteers will respond to calls, but will not be committed to a schedule .
Forgea does not want the years of work by volunteers to pass by unnoticed. ”I am so proud of what everyone accomplished over the years, and equally proud of what’s been put in place in such a short period of time with Highland,” he said.
The transition from the local services to Highland has been smooth, Forgea said, in part because the relationships between the towns ”have been built over a lifetime. We accepted early on that our communities go beyond town lines,” he said.
Forgea said that it is significant that the final shift of the Cummington Ambulance was worked by Plainfield residents. In 1973, when the Office of Emergency Medical Services wanted to present Cummington Ambulance with its license personally, Forgea was unable to attend.
Forgea told EMS officials to call dispatch to tone out the crew. He noted that Plainfield residents Arvilla Dyer and Bob Aeschback responded and accepted the license.
”We needed full partnership to make it work (with Plainfield) and we got it,” Forgea said.