Roseville purchases 3 brand-new ambulances

ROSEVILLE — The Roseville Fire Department recently purchased three brand-new advanced life support ambulances.

On Feb. 14, city officials and firefighter-paramedics gathered at the Roseville Fire Department Headquarters on Common Road to unveil the new squads, or ambulances, which were expected to be on the road this month.

“I think it’s going to provide the citizens of Roseville with more services and save some more lives,” Mayor Robert Taylor said.

City officials used federal money to purchase the three squads, which cost a total of $710,590. The new squads are replacing three older ambulance vehicles that have outlived their service life.

“They are top-of-line with state-of-the-art features. These have a much better ride and will be more comfortable for paramedics and the patients. The vehicle suspension, dependability and camera systems are improved,” Fire Chief Keith Jacobs said. “We’ve always had older vehicles. Now we’ve got three squads, which are entirely brand-new with zero miles on them.”

All three squads follow state and federal requirements. Each squad has a Stryker power stretcher and self-loading power load system that raises and lowers the patient with the touch of a button through a hydraulic system. All three vehicles are Ford E-450 road rescue models and will have brand-new 2023 Lifepak 15 monitors.   

Squad No. 1 is a new 2021 model. It replaced a 2006 Braun Squad No. 1, which had over 200,000 miles on it and over 5,000 running hours. It was initially purchased from the city of Eastpointe in 2014.

For Squad No. 2, the 2016 vehicle’s body was completely repaired, refurbished, repainted and then remounted onto a new 2021 model. The new purchase replaces the old Squad No. 2, which had chassis issues, but the body was still in “excellent shape.”

Squad No. 3 replaced the department’s 2009 MedTech, which had over 230,000 miles on it and over 5,000 running hours.

Squads No. 1 and No. 3 will be stationed at the Common Road headquarters. Squad No. 2 will be housed at Station No. 2 on Frazho Road.

“We put a lot of miles on them,” Jacobs said. “They are constantly running.”

The new vehicles are coming to the city at a time when the department’s call volume has increased in recent years. According to Capt. and Training Officer Joel Britt, the department had a total call volume of 8,189 in 2019.

“In 2022, we had a total call volume of 9,478,” he said via email. “So in the past four years, we have seen a steady yearly increase in total runs and a 15.74% increase over a four-year span.”

The older vehicles being replaced will be sold on the Municibid website. The online auction is a service for government agencies, schools, authorities and utilities to sell their surplus and forfeitures directly to the public. Any money received for the used ambulances will go back into the city of Roseville’s general fund and be earmarked for the Fire Department to purchase additional safety equipment that had not been budgeted.

In addition to the new fleet, the department has two more backup ambulances; one is a 2016 model and the other a 2017 model.