Camas' First Ambulance Service: A Historical Journey

0:00Kamas holds the spot as home to Clark County's first ambulance service back in 1935, when the volunteer fire department tricked out a sedan for first aid in emergencies. That made it the go-to for the whole area, beating out the national first in Cincinnati by about 70 years. The idea goes way back to ancient battlefields, where Napoleon's surgeon, Dominic Jean-Lerry, wrote out flying ambulance's carts to scoop up the wounded fast. By the Civil War from 1861 to 1865, both sides had organized core hauling injured soldiers to medics with supplies, saving lives outside hospitals for the first time. Early on, cities like Vancouver used herses, police wagons, or fire trucks, with barely trained folks handling the sick and hurt. Take Vancouver's Jim Brown after World War II. He joined the fire department, became fire marshal in 1950, and even modded his own station. Wagon into an ambulance, with on-the-job training. Things shifted big in 1966, with the National Academy of Sciences report, calling out sloppy pre-hospital care as a killer, leading to.

1:06Federal standards for ambulances, and ditching the homemade rigs. Then in 1996, Clark County started contracting EMS to cut costs and boost speed. Now AMR runs most ambulance contracts here. Fire department's handle medical responses. Comma's Wachugul provides their own rides and North Country EMS. Covers the rural spots. Keeping responses sharpest tech keeps evolving. Vancouver news today, powered by AI bringing you what matters.