The members of the Archbald Community Ambulance and Rescue Squad have continuously shown dedication to continuing education and specialized training. Our policy on training is that each member must be trained in basic first aid and CPR certified with AED credentials. From there, the training is entirely up to the individual member.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health Emergency Medical Technician-Basic is the level of training required to operate a crew at the BLS level. Most of our members decide on the commitment of EMT-B training after "getting their feet wet" in our organization.
In addition to the excellent continuing education courses offered by the PA Dept. of Health and training courses offered by neighboring ambulance/rescue/fire companies, we offer many in-house training opportunities. These range from actual state-certified classes for continuing education credits and monthly training drills to both keep our skills fresh and to identify those areas where we feel we can improve.
Some of the Medical Training held by our members includes:
The Archbald Community Ambulance and Rescue Squad has been growing steadily in recent years. Because of the dedication of our members in the areas of both training and emergency response, our ambulances usually exceed the state requirement of having one EMT on the crew.
Training and Certifications currently held by our members include:
In addition to our normal duty, many of our members also serve the community as firefighters in different companies. We are fortunate to have a lot of trained firefighters in our department. This allows us to provide better support to fire crews on firegrounds and helps us to perform our own rescue duties as many of the rescue crew members are cross-trained. We provide Firefighter Rehabilitation, Patient Care and have been called on several times to act as a RIT (Rapid Intervention Team or FAST team), being the crew at the ready in the event that the firefighters run into trouble and need some help getting out safely. Although we are not a fire company, we provide close support to the borough fire department. We are one of two companies within the borough with the capacity to refill SCBA packs (firefighter air packs) while on scene.
The newest equipment and training we employ is in wildland rescue. We recently added an ATV with a custom-built rescue trailer to our vehicle lineup. It has been called upon for use both in the Borough and in many other communities in the area. This is a specialized service that we have put into use because of the large amount of undeveloped and State Game Land in our coverage area.