GREENVILLE – Spirit EMS has again answered the call and is responding to a request for assistance in anticipation of Hurricane Ian making landfall later this week along the Florida coast.
As a network provider under American Medical Response’s (AMR) contract with FEMA, Spirit has sent seven ambulances and 14 crew members along with additional medical supplies. According to a Spirit press release, Spirit anticipates the crews will be on a 14-day activation, but that can change as the situation evolves. The crews will stay in the area as long as needed. When the crews arrive at their assigned staging area, they will be working under the guidance of FEMA, state and local EMS agencies.
Five ambulances from Spirit left Monday afternoon and two left Tuesday afternoon, during two phases of deployment activation by AMR.
“As first responders, we provide care to those in need, so we help provide assistance to residents and communities being impacted by this incoming storm as people are being asked to evacuate,” said Brian K. Hathaway, president/CEO of Spirit EMS in the release. “While we are deploying resources to stage away from the main path of the storm, this will not affect our ability to continue providing medical care for the areas we serve across west-central Ohio and eastern Indiana.”
Hathaway explained that Spirit has been a network provider for AMR since 2019 and truly values the partnership. The president also shared the company sends a mix of full-time employees and part-time special event and disaster relief personnel, whenever they are activated for a deployment.
“It’s a privilege for our family of professionals to be a part of these deployments whenever the need arises,” Hathaway explained. “We have a group of dedicated employees who remain ready should the call for a deployment occur. On Monday afternoon when we were activated, everyone that was called up to respond arrived on station and were ready to respond within a couple of hours. It’s gratifying to see the support their friends and family show as they head off on these missions.”
He shared that employees from several of the stations the company has across Ohio and Indiana are represented on this deployment. Spirit has stations in Greenville, Celina, Houston, Sidney and Van Wert, Ohio and in Liberty, Indiana.
AMR is FEMA’s prime emergency medical service response provider and has a national agreement with FEMA to provide ground ambulance, air ambulance, para-transit services and non-ambulance EMS personnel to supplement the federal and military response to a disaster, an act of terrorism or any other public health emergency.
