Quality EMS, Mars police share parts to outfit new vehicle
MARS — One department’s trash proved to be another department’s treasure.
Quality EMS, which serves portions of southwestern Butler County, worked together with the Mars Borough Police Department to repurpose parts from a decommissioned police vehicle and add them to a new vehicle to be used by the EMS provider.
Before the borough council meeting Monday, Quality EMS director Conrad Pfeifer showed borough council members and officers the newly updated car, which has been outfitted with sirens, warning lights, hubcaps, wheels and other parts from the Mars police vehicle.
“It took us a couple of months, but there it is,” Pfeifer said. “Mars police donated (the old car), and we stripped the lights and everything out of it, and put it into this car.”
The vehicle had previously been in the EMS’ possession, but was not being used. It will now serve as a Basic Life Support vehicle, once the state certifies it this week.
In emergency medical services, paramedic ambulances are top-of-the-line vehicles that can do everything an emergency room can do. A Basic Life Support squad vehicle doesn’t have all of the capabilities of an ambulance, but can provide medical support and transport paramedics, Pfeifer explained.
“Say that two EMTs are at a call, and they need a paramedic, or say we have an ambulance coming from the Cranberry hospital and we need someone there quick,” he said. “This is going to be the quick response vehicle, and it’s licensed by the state. A paramedic can go relieve another medic if their shift is over, or if they need more help.”
Mars police officer-in-charge Mark Lint said that because both vehicles were Chevy Impalas from the same time range of around 2009, the equipment could be transferred between the two.
“We had a 2009 Chevy Impala that had to be taken out of service because it would not pass inspection, but it had all the emergency equipment installed on it,” Lint said. “That emergency equipment can’t be used in future vehicles, because it’s not digital, and it’s obsolete. However, Quality EMS had a Chevy impala with the same system, they just needed to get outfitted for their EMS vehicle.”
Because Pfeifer also works with the Mars police, the two first responder departments agreed to exchange the vehicle from the police department to Quality EMS.
“It helped us out, by the fact that we didn’t have to try to dispose of it, and Quality EMS benefited from it,” Lint said. “They didn’t have to spend any money on emergency lighting, or sirens, or wheels.”
