Shreveport Fire Chief Brian Crawford’s plan to save the city thousands of dollars by using special  cars to answer EMS calls instead of fire engines took a major step forward when Willis Knighton Health System donated $700,000.  It was enough money to purchase seven special EMS cars called “SPRINTs” and the medical equipment that they will carry. SPRINT stands for “Single Paramedic Rapid Intervention Non-Transport”.

The first SPRINT Car went into service in January of 2010 at Station 9 (The busiest fire station in Louisiana) using a spare Battalion Chief Car.

Chief Crawford’s plan is to station a SPRINT Car in seven of the fire stations that have hook and ladder trucks.

On July 22, 2010, Three 2010 Ford Expeditions were put in service at Stations 1, 8 and 9. SPRINT 9’s old car will be placed in reserve. Next year the balance of the SPRINT Cars will be implemented.

The SPRINT Cars will be manned by a paramedic fire captain, and the driver of the hook and ladder truck in the station. When there is an emergency medical call in the SPRINT Car’s district the truck company will go out of service while the car makes the call. When the SPRINT Car returns to the station the Truck Company will be placed back in service. If a fire call for the truck company comes in while the SPRINT Car is on a run, the next nearest truck company will respond to the fire.

Instead of sending a fire engine company to medical emergencies a SPRINT Car will be sent. Chief Crawford states that it should be a big monetary savings over sending a fire engine since they get about two miles per gallon, there’s a lot of wasted gas and unnecessary wear and tear on those $500,000 fire engines. “Those fire trucks were never designed to make 3,000 calls a year.”

Since the Fire Department took over emergency medical services in 1984, it’s dispatched a fire engine to accompany ambulances to every medical emergency — big or small. More than 75 percent of the calls the department receives have nothing to do with fires.

Chief Crawford said he presented the idea to Mayor Glover when he was appointed Chief.  He borrowed the concept from the San Antonio Fire Department, and says, “It is the future of fire-based EMS.”