PARAMEDICS wearing breathing apparatus will now be treating patients in the midst of fires, collapsed building and train crashes, thanks to the launch of the Hazardous Area Response Team.
Based in WGC, HART is made up of highly skilled teams of paramedics who have specialist training to go above and beyond.
At the service’s launch on Wednesday the ambulance crews mocked up a chemical incident and donned protective suits as they hunted for anyone who needed treatment.
They entered the “hot zone” which is an area only the fire service would normally go within.
HART manager Steven Moore said: “Historically treatment of patients didn’t happen until after the fire and rescue service had arranged for the patient to be brought out of the incident inner cordon (the hot zone).”
Hart trainer Lewis Andrews added: “This will save lives. In the hot zone they carrying out immediate, life-saving interventions, breathing issues, blocked airways.”
The teams are now working round the clock and covering all of Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.
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