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Southwest Ambulance Participating in Top Off Exercise Arizona’s Largest Ambulance Provider With More Than 300 Ambulances to Practice Mass Disaster Response as Part of National Exercise for National State and Local Top Officials.
Mesa, Arizona (October 16, 2007) – Southwest Ambulance is the State’s only ambulance provider participating in the TOPOFF4 Exercise occurring this week in the Valley. The company joins area Fire Departments and thousands of federal, state and local officials in practicing various full-scale simulated responses to a “Dirty Bomb” scenario. As the largest ambulance provider in the State of Arizona Southwest has about 225 ambulances in Maricopa and Pinal Counties, with more than 700 field personnel including Emergency Medical Technicians, Paramedics, and Registered Nurses. Another 75 ambulances and hundreds more personnel are in Tucson. Southwest Ambulance’s new regional headquarters campus in Mesa was also built with mass-disaster considerations in mind. It’s 35,000 square foot medical warehouse holds more than 90 days worth of medical supplies available during an emergency. The campus also includes an Emergency Operations Command Center (EOC) with more than 100 phone and computer hook-ups on an emergency generator available for area public safety agencies in an emergency. “If a natural or man-made disaster were to occur in Arizona, Southwest would be transporting a large number of those patients as the State’s largest ambulance transportation provider,” said Jeff Sargent, President of Southwest Ambulance. “We regularly participate in local drills under the direction of State, Federal or Fire Department lead agencies to give our management and crews realistic simulations and practice opportunities that can save lives during a real emergency.” Southwest Ambulance was the only private ambulance provider to participate in training exercises by the National Disaster Management System (NDMS) and the Sky Harbor Airport drill required by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2006. In both scenarios, Southwest field personnel worked with the Phoenix Fire Department and other agencies in treating and transporting “patients” to area hospitals to allow those facilities to participate in the drill. Southwest Ambulance has also assisted in disasters beyond Arizona. Just a few years ago, Southwest sent ten ambulances and more than 25 dedicated employees to help in Texas before, during and after Hurricane Rita.
For more information contact:
Josh Weiss, Public Information Officer
Southwest Ambulance
Mobile: 602-739-0546
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