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PAGE 10 A Turley Publication • www.turley.com I Thursday, July 19, 2012
Rescue Squad looks back on 60 years
of emergency care
Subscription Drive begins Aug. 1
By Cristy Bertini
Reporter
-WEST BROOKFIELD-
Rescue Squad President Paul Lupacchino maneuvers
the brand new ambulance out of the bay.
The vehicle, complete with all the specifi cations
an EMT would ever need, cost $201,171 – and the best
part, according to Lupacchino, is that it didn’t cost
taxpayers one cent. It was purchased entirely with the
squad’s funds.
Now that the squad has another ambulance, storage
has become an even bigger problem. Lupacchino asked
the board of selectmen at a recent meeting if the rescue
squad could purchase and place a temporary structure
and tap into the fi re department’s resources to heat the
structure, in order to house the older ambulance until
an emergency complex is built. The board told him they
would take the matter under advisement.
Lupacchino, who is also the fi re chief, joined the
rescue squad informally in 1974. “I was always hanging
around the station, and back then, you just went on
the calls,” he said. “In October of 1976, I was offi cially
added to the roster, but as a fi refi ghter. I had to go to
the civil defense director for permission. Back then, they
gave us old raincoats and WWII helmets that we painted
yellow, and that was our gear to respond to fi res. A
lot has changed since then.”
The West Brookfi eld Rescue Squad, Inc. was established
in March of 1952. Prior to its conception, sick and
injured residents were transported to the hospital by a
taxi, hailed from Spencer or Ware. When time wasn’t on
the patient’s side, a personal vehicle was used to transport
them, belonging to a fi reman, policeman, or pretty
much anyone that was willing to help. Not everyone had
vehicles at that time.
In March of 1952, Sherman C. McCarthy of High
Street in West Brookfi eld, a business man who worked
in North Brookfi eld, initiated the purchase of the town’s
fi rst Ambulance. He formed a committee to raise the
money needed to purchase the retiring North Brookfi eld
Ambulance, which was a converted hearse from Lane
Funereal Home. The cost of the ambulance was $150,
and the West Brookfi eld Rescue Squad was formed by
12 charter members March, 1952. The membership was
comprised of 12 fi refi ghters, who donated their time.
The Rescue Squad was independent from the fi re department
and the town. It operated as a non-for-profi t
organization, operating solely on donations.
In 1953, the ambulance garage was built behind the
fi re station at its current location, at a cost of $1,500.
The funding was donated by the town and appropriated
at town meeting.
The garage housed the ambulance and a boiler room
for the fi re station. The meeting space was provided by
the fi re department in the station’s meeting room.
Insurance for the building was provided by the town,
a line itemed article yearly worded as such, “Insurance
for Ambulance Garage/Furnace Room”.
Required training at the time included basic fi rst
aid class and an advanced class in proper handling and
transportation of patients in the ambulance. The training
given by local physician, Dr. Louis Roy.
By the end of the fi rst 15 years, the Rescue Squad
was responding to an average of 73 calls per year.
In 1967, the fi rst yearly fund drive was organized.
During this time, emergency medical services were beginning
to organize at the state level, and ambulance
costs began to increase. The Rescue Squad needed more
funding to operate and replace the current ambulance,
thus beginning the fund drive.
In 1968, the state started to required specifi c equipment
to be carried on the ambulance.
The Rescue Squad and EMS community faced its
biggest challenges during the 1970s.
A fi re station addition was needed and approved. The
ambulance garage was taken down and the addition included
three bays (which currently stand) and one of
which was dedicated to housing the ambulance.
The addition was completed in 1972; the same time
the state began requiring that all ambulance services
have certifi ed national emergency medical technicians
as attendants, and ordered that as of 1977, two emergency
medical technicians would be required on ambulances
for transports.
Immediate training was needed, but the funding
wasn’t there. The state eventually sponsored classes in
the area. The classes were held in Ware and Belchertown.
The fee was $80 for 81 hours of class work, and
members were not paid to take the training.
In 1973, Mary Lane Hospital announced that a doctor
would be on duty in the hospital 24 hours a day,
seven days a week to handle all emergency calls.
The town’s fi rst modular ambulance was purchased
new, at a cost of $16,200. Bigger ambulances were needed
to carry required equipment. Ambulance auto insurance
increased to $556.90.
The rescue squad memberships began to dwindle in
1975, as no one had 81 hours of time to donate and become
certifi ed, along with another 64 hours every two
years for recertifi cation. Dayshift help was at an all-time
minimum. So, on Jan. 14, 1975 a vote was taken to accept
non-fi re department individuals interested in joining
the rescue squad. The age minimum was lowered 21
to 18 years of age and that membership was now open
to both men and women.
A new ambulance was purchased in 1999 at a cost of
$120,000. Again, the squad used its own funds for the
purchase.
In 2001, the squad went forward with the necessary
paperwork to change its charter to refl ect billing insurance
companies and paying EMTs for work performed.
This was done to help offset the mounting cost to keep
the rescue squad running.
In 2002, the squad changed the fund drive to a subscription
drive. During the fund drive each year, the
rescue squad sent out 1,800 fl yers to all town residents
and the average response was 245 returned donations
totaling approximately $24,500, by Dec. 31 of that year.
The subscription drive is mailed to 1,800 town residents
with a return Subscription total of 593 responses. The
subscription drive raised $17,620, plus additional donations
of $10,362, for a total amount of $27,982, also by
Dec. 31.
West Brookfi eld residents with a subscription have
their co-pays and deductibles waved, a secondary insurance
policy for ambulance services. Without a subscription,
it is a requirement from the state and federal government
that patients be balanced billed.
The subscription drive offers residents with no insurance,
ambulance services at no additional cost above the
subscription.
No tax dollars are used to run the ambulance at its
current level and availability. The squad provides for
its own EMT courses, pre-employment physicals $450,
compensation per call for its members, radios and pagers
per technician, jump kits and ambulance maintenance.
The squad also provides CPR training at the elementary
school at no cost, and oxygen and supply equipment
to the police department.
Lupacchino said that the squad used to pay $700
– $900 a year to the town to carry the auto and liability
insurance for the Rescue Squad on the group policy, but
the town no longer offers the squad this option. The cost
to provide coverage for the ambulance, and liability insurance
is $6,000, plus workmen’s comp for employees
costs another $2,000 per year.
The Rescue Squad answered 580 calls last year. As
far as future goals for the squad, Lupacchino said he
wants to continue to provide the best care possible for
his residents and anyone else for that matter, in need.
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The fi rst West Brookfi eld ambulance with Leon Adams at the wheel – purchased with donations from the North Brookfi eld Emergency Squad – 1952.
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