The Independent

Sarnia’s new ambulances have a new home.

Lambton County has leased a commercial space near Modeland Road and Confederation Line to house a temporary EMS Station.

Lambton County approved upgrading ambulance service in the city at budget after Stephen Turner, manager of emergency services for the county, said 62 per cent of calls are in Sarnia but only 32 per cent of the ambulances and paramedics are in the city “requiring ambulances from the rest of the county to be brought into the city on standby for coverage.”

That resulted in longer response times in the county’s rural regions.

At budget time the county approved the hiring of four new paramedics and purchase of two new ambulances.

“As we add the new ambulances, we need to also have a place to put them. We don’t have enough garage space in our existing Sarnia facilities in order to do that. So George Street Station has four bays, and Brights Grove has one bay. So those are all filled up right now,” Turner says. “We just don’t have enough garage space for all the vehicles and in the fleet and ambulances especially contain some very temperature sensitive equipment. So not being able to keep them in a climate-controlled environment makes it a challenge for us, because then we’ve got to bring everything in from the truck.”

The new ambulances will eventually be housed at a new $10.8 million facility at the research park. But work on that project is in the preliminary stages, Turner said.

The county took possession of the rental space May 15. “We’ll spend the next six weeks or so prepping the facility for for operations, we’ll be moving those two vehicles there, and we’ll also be putting some of our other fleet in there as well.”

The temporary ambulance station should cost upwards of $150,000 to rent until the new garage is complete.