Residents of East Liverpool should soon be seeing reduced response times for Emergency Medical Services provided by the city's fire department. 

A new remounted ambulance was delivered to East Liverpool last night and will begin use by January, allowing EMS officials to reduce response and wait times when timing is critical. 

East Liverpool Fire Chief Antony Cumo said the latest addition is actually their previous ambulance, which has been remounted, meaning the box was removed from the chassis and mounted onto a new vehicle, and it is now rewired, with new lights, cabinets and a new floor.

The previous ambulance was a 2001 model purchased by the city in 2018 and had 100,000+ miles. 

When the city purchased a new ambulance in 2023 with grant funding, the previous ambulance was placed on a waiting list for remounting. 

Now that the city has two working ambulances, Cumo says it will reduce response time and allow one ambulance to be at the hospital, dropping off or transporting a patient, while the other remains in service.

The ambulance cost $204,000, and the city used $37,000 from opioid settlement funds, leaving a remaining balance of $167,000, which Cumo says is about half the cost of buying a brand-new ambulance and eliminates the wait time of up to five years for a new EMS vehicle.

The city, which received a federal Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant, will help pay for additional firefighters to run two ambulances beginning in 2026. 

Cumo said the new ambulance "will help the city out drastically... so far this year to date, we have had to call mutual aid for medical calls 115 times."

The city took over control of its EMS services from a private contractor back in 2023, and Cumo said that change has worked out well for residents and the city, with EMS revenue helping to pay for staffing and equipment.

Cumo said he wanted to thank the city council and the administration for their support and for the decisions over the last few months to increase firefighter and EMS staffing, putting safety first for its citizens.

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