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The New Canaan Volunteer Ambulance Corps was founded in February 1975. It was incorporated and started with shifts from 6PM to Midnight. The Corps was established, run and staffed by volunteers as it still is today. The first ambulance was a Cadillac station wagon, which was purchased in March of that year and housed behind the Town Hall. In April the shifts expanded to 6PM to 6 AM on weekdays and 24 hours shifts on the weekends. In October when the Ambulance was wrecked it was replaced with a van. The first year NCVAC responded to 80 calls.
In February of 1976, the Lions Club bought pagers and radios for the Corps and the Duty Station was moved to the Red Cross and by June of that year we became a twenty-four hour emergency medical service. In July we had our first Mass Casualty Incident in the form of a train wreck. This incident led us in February 1977 to develop a Regional Disaster Plan. A month before we relocated the Duty Station back to the Town Hall.
In April of 1978, we acquired a used Horton to serve as a second ambulance. The Emergency Medical Services Commission was formed in July of 1981. 1983 was a big year when we joined Southwest C-Med and the Corps’ headquarters building at 182 South Avenue, our present location, was dedicated in March. NCVAC members became MAST certified in June and hosted a mass casualty drill in Waveny Park in October of that year.
In June of 1984, NCVAC became EGTA certified. In May of ‘87 NCVAC became Defib certified and our first “save” occurred in October of that year. NCVAC’s 15 minutes of fame occurred when Rescue 911 aired our cardiac save of fireman John Di Panni in December 1990.
In June of 1996, the Town of New Canaan contracted with Norwalk Hospital to provide twenty-four hour paramedic service in conjunction with the Volunteer Ambulance Corps. Citizens of the Town donated money to purchase a Paramedic Response Vehicle (Fly Car)
In 1998, the Police Department started carrying portable Semi-Automatic Defibrillators in their patrol cars and were trained to bring them to the side of patients in cardiac arrest. In November the police “save” a life with this new piece of equipment. It soon became obvious that in crowded situations like the 4th of July Picnics at Waveny and the Halloween Parade that bikes would be a better response vehicle and the EMS Bike team was born.
NCVAC celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2005 and also added a third ambulance while providing care to almost 1500 patients. In 2007, the Corps sponsored its third in-town EMT training class from which it gained 11 new members. At present, these new members are in various stages of completeing their hands on NCVAC training and seven of them have begun riding on the ambulance 60 hours each month with established NCVAC crews.
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