Phoenix Metropolitan Area Fire Apparatus

[Image7801]

After several years of trying, Peoria is supposed to get it's authorization from the State of Arizona (CON - Certificate of Necessity) to begin operating it's own ambulances.  Most of metro Phoenix (with the major exception of Phoenix itself and a couple of small Fire districts) use contracted ambulance service, through Southwest Ambulance (a Rural/Metro company), PMT (also a Rural/Metro company), AMT (ALSO a Rural/Metro Company) or AMR (new to the region).  This is a less-than-ideal situation for patient care, and many Cities are hoping the Peoria experiment will be successful. 

 

Peoria currently uses PMT as it's contracted transport service, with (IIRC) 5 full time ambulances (191, 192, 193, 194, 195) and two peak time rigs (196, 199).

 

It will take a couple of years to fully implement the plan, but as Peoria doesn't actually own any ambulances (yet), and the State won't approve the CON until they do, the solution was to lease a reserve from North County Fire (formerly Sun City West), in order to get the approval.  The shop guys don't know if this rig will actually go into service (the City's first two rigs are on order, I guess), but the crew was doing some PM on it anyway.  Sorry about the inside photo - The shop was kind of jammed up and I didn't want to bother them to move a bunch of rigs to get it out.  It's not in full Peoria "colors" - the three white North County stripes left on, but you get the idea.

 

The plan for Peoria's ambos will be to use Ford F-350 chassis, then remount the box on a new chassis every few years.  They don't need the extra length like this one, and the heaver chassis would require air suspension to lower the height for patient loading, which they don't want to deal with, given the high call volume.

 

2006 Ford F450/Road Rescue