Ambulance Service receives grant

McCreary County EMS Director Jimmy Barnett announced that the service has been awarded an Assistance to Firefighters Grant, which will go toward outfitting six ambulances with auto loaders to enhance safety for patients and crews.

The grant, totaling $190,543, was awarded through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s AFG program, which is designed to help provide equipment, training and resources to fire departments and other emergency responders.

“We were really excited to learn we were awarded this grant,” Barnett said. “This grant is harder to get for ambulance services since it is geared toward fire departments, but this is the third time in the past six years we have received it.”

Barnett said the auto loaders will automatically lift and load a stretcher in to the back of an ambulance, reducing the risk of injury to the patient and crew. It will work in conjunction with the power lift stretchers the department has outfitted units with through other grants.
In the past few years EMS and McCreary County 911 have received over $700,000 in grants to improve and enhance services.