05/18/2026
In 1974, President Ford formalized designating the third full week of May as National EMS Week. In recognition of this, we wanted to let you know of the EMS activity of your Dunham Township Volunteer Fire Department for the 2025 calendar year.
We responded to 263 "squad" calls (ambulance) in our township and in mutual aid to surrounding townships. We responded in mutual aid to Barlow, Warren, Fairfield, Decatur and Wesley Townships. We averaged 22 squad calls per month with as few as 14 in August and as many as 29 in April. We traveled approximately 4,033 miles on these squad calls. On rare occasions, we received mutual aid from neighboring township squads when we were unable to adequately staff our squad for a call or our squad was already busy with another call.
We responded to calls ranging from an elderly or disabled person falling and needed a "lift assist" to motor vehicle accidents with entrapment and from a drowning to cardiac arrest. We responded to snake bites to intentional deaths and from general illness to seizures and strokes. In other words, we have responded to about every type of medical emergency you can imagine.
An EMS response involves at least two EMS-trained members responding with a third or fourth member (EMS or fire) frequently responding, as well. When a call is received, the members respond to the station first, get in the squad and then travel to the scene of the emergency. The patient is assessed and treated, if necessary. In the event that additional medical care is needed, we transport the patient to the hospital. We transported patients to Marietta Memorial Hospital-Main Campus, Marietta Memorial Hospital-Belpre Campus and Camden-Clark Memorial Hospital. Depending on the nature of the call, the amount of treatment needed prior to transport, the time needed to move the patient from where they are found to the squad (if transport is necessary) and the amount of time we have to wait with the patient at the emergency room until hospital staff take over care of the patient, we may spend over two hours from the time we are dispatched until the time we have completed the necessary paperwork following the call. It is not unusual for the calls to last longer than that.
After reviewing run reports and dispatch logs, if you do the math . . . there were well over 500 hours of time your members spent on EMS calls during 2025. That number does not include hours spent in training, certification and re-certification or hours spent on cleaning and maintaining the squad. These are all volunteer hours which occur all hours of the day and night including weekends, holidays, birthday parties, etc. We hope you never need a squad but, know that if you do, we will do our best to respond quickly and provide quality emergency medical care to you or your loved one.
