Lakeside Fire Places the New Medic 1 Into Service

Lakeside Firefighter/paramedics Jamie Hazlewood (l) and Steve Russo with the new Medic 1.

In 1975, the Lakeside and Santee Fire Districts placed into service the first paramedic ambulance in San Diego County.   Since then the Lakeside Fire District as been providing ALS (advanced life support) care to our community.

County Service Area 69 (CSA-69)  is a joint emergency services area that Lakeside Fire District shares with the Santee Fire Department. It started with one ambulance but, as our population increased and demand escalated, it required the addition of units. The CSA now has four paramedic ambulances covering the service area.

Medic 1 is located at the Riverview fire station (FS1) and is the busiest of the four CSA-69 ambulances, averaging around 3000 calls every year. Medic 1 averages about 50,000 miles a year and with a growing call volume the mileage increases each year.  Our ambulances are taken out of front line status and placed into reserve status at 150,000 miles.  On Thursday, June 9, 2011 the new paramedic unit was placed into service.  Firefighter/Paramedics Jamie Hazlewood and Steve Russo put the last of the equipment on the unit today and ran its first call shortly afterwards.

Story and photo by: Firefighter/Paramedic Matthew Buzzell