Walker County Emergency Services (WCES) placed three Quick Response Vehicles (QRV) into operation last week. One QRV has been added to each of the county’s three full time fire stations: Rock Spring, Chickamauga and Lafayette. These vehicles can respond to any incident, but will primarily work medical calls and motor vehicle accidents.
In their first 48 hours in service, firefighters used QRVs to respond to 23 out of 24 service calls. The one call where a Quick Response Vehicle was not used came while a QRV was already dispatched on a medical call. WCES used a QRV to respond to 39 of 44 calls last week.
The addition of these QRVs comes at no added expense to the taxpayer, and will provide Walker County residents with significant savings. WCES repurposed trucks used to battle brush fires. In addition, the department relocated medical and extrication equipment from fire engines for this new service.
QRVs are more cost effective to maintain than fire engines, get twice as much gas mileage and will improve response times. They also allow WCES to extend the life span of existing fire engines, since these 35,000+ pound units will now be used to primary respond to residential and commercial fires.
Each QRV is staffed with a minimum of two firefighters.
