Pleasant Dale Volunteer Fire Department raising money for ambulance

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - The Pleasant Dale Volunteer Fire Department thinks they can help more.

The rural department serves 84 square miles and 1,850 people in 2 separate counties, but doesn’t have an ambulance, despite a bulk of their calls being for medical help. Now, they’re asking the public for help buying an ambulance, through the Seward County Gives fundraiser.

Seward County Gives is a fundraiser that highlights a variety of organizations in the county, and helps direct people to giving via their website.

PDVFD is one of those organizations. Joey Carder works as an EMT and firefighter for PDVFD.

Carder said as soon as a call is dispatched, it takes about 10 minutes to gear up and get to the call. But if an ambulance is needed, it takes extra time.

“It can take anywhere from 15, 20, 25 minutes. We’ve even waited 45 minutes once,” Carder said. “Knowing based off of our guidelines, and our training what we should be doing is transporting and taking them in. We just kind of try to help keep them calm, and their mind off of what their injuries may be, because you can’t do a whole lot else when you can’t take that patient to the hospital.”

A break down of the call log shows that the department usually receives about 100 calls a year (though this year they’re ahead, they’ve already had 50.) 60% of those calls are for medical help and 20% of those calls are on I80. The lack of an ambulance keeps them from transporting patients that need critical care.

“We rely on other local departments, like Malcolm, Milford, Crete, Southwest, Midwest Medical,” Carder said. “That means for our patients is a delay in leaving to get transported to the hospital.”

Ambulances aren’t cheap and taxing isn’t considered an option, since PDVFD straddles two counties.

The department has been raising money for about a year, and have $26,000 of the $250,000 required to buy a new, fully-equipped ambulance.

The department is also fundraising through Seward County Gives. The program is put on through the Seward Legacy Fund.

“There’s a match associated with every unique gift that’s given as well,” Misty Ahmic, with the Seward County Fund said. “Everybody that gives is increasing those donations as they come in.”

Every dollar given will help, Carder says, when help is needed most.

“If a patient has a stroke or a heart attack, those types of calls are the ones where every second counts,” Carder said. “Being there taking care of a patient knowing that if we had the right equipment, we could be taking them to the hospital and making a difference with those. It’s tough to wait longer just because we don’t have the right equipment

The fundraiser runs till May 5th. To give, click here.

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