Founded in 1978, Foxwall EMS is a volunteer Advanced Life Support ambulance service.
Foxwall is dedicated to providing the best possible emergency coverage to the Fox Chapel, Aspinwall, and Blawnox communities in north Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

On these pages you will find information about Foxwall, its members, and its services. Please contact us if you have any questions about Foxwall that are not answered here.

Foxwall joined over 60 other ambulances in a multi-vehicle photo shoot at Pittsburgh International Airport to celebrate EMS Week.

“We hope that EMS services will take this picture and post it to their web sites or use it in other EMS week promotions. People know when they call 911 they’ll get help, no matter what their circumstance. Anytime, anywhere, Emergency Medical Services will be there,” said Knox Walk, EMS Manager, Allegheny County.

Read Full Article

Click on the photo below to see a larger size image. Foxwall is in the center-right of the picture.

Saturday, May 16th from 11am until 2pm

The fun-filled event will be complete with kid’s activities, entertainment, food, safety demonstrations and more…ALL FOR FREE!

Foxwall Thanks the following sponsors for making this community celebration possible:
The Fox Chapel District Association
Tri-State Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine, Inc.
Club One

Special Events/Demos Schedule:

11:00     Opening Ceremony

11:15     Immobilization Demonstration

12:00     Police K-9 Demonstration

12:30     CPR Demonstration

1:00        STATMedevac Helicopter Landing & Tours

2:00        Youth Emergency Preparedness Project Competition & Awards Ceremony

Other highlights during the three-hour long event include:

FREE Rita’s Ice!
Disc jockey
Bill Heh balloon animals
“Otto” the remote control police car
The bounce house
Child fingerprinting courtesy of Liberty Mutual Insurance
Blood pressure screenings
Kids games
Door prizes
Free food
Free chair massages
UPMC Smart Van tours
Learn about calling 9-1-1 courtesy of Allegheny County 911 Center
Ambulance tours
Fire apparatus tours
Health & safety informational hand outs
Search and rescue dogs

There is plenty of parking next to Foxwall’s base at the Fox Chapel Racquet Club and The North Hills Community Outreach is generously providing FREE rides for seniors from the Blawnox High Rise to the event.

HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL AT THE FAIR!

Visit our donations page to learn more about how you can support Foxwall.

Visit our photo gallery for pictures from the 2008 Fair.

Foxwall has purchased a new ambulance to replace the old Medic 142. The ambulance has arrived, and we expect that it will be in service in late January or early February of 2009 following our Dept. of Health Licensure Inspection.

	The new ambulance is a 2008 Chevrolet C-4500 chassis with the ambulance conversion performed by Excellance, Inc. of Madison, Alabama. Its medium duty chassis will carry a higher payload and handle much better than the Ford Econoline chassis which were used in the past. The vehicle should be easier to maintain, easier to drive; allow more area in the patient compartment, cab and exterior storage.
In addition to the chassis, the new unit is equipped with the latest in air ride suspension systems and LED emergency lighting. LED technology, while relatively new in EMS applications, provides higher visibility with less power requirements than traditional strobe, halogen or mechanical flashing lights.

MEDIA ADVISORY/PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: The Youth Emergency Preparedness Project- Teaching Kids to Save Lives

WHO: Ten 8th grade students from Dorseyville Middle School (Bennett Gould, Brittany Kipp, Alex Norman, Simran Pabla, Autumn Popovich, Jon Reis, Raj Sidhu, Dip Sidhu, Yasuhiro Toyoda, and Zhihong Xu); Foxwall Emergency Medical Service; Lower Valley Ambulance Service; Pittsburgh Emergency Medicine Foundation; University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

WHAT: The Youth Emergency Preparedness Project (YEPP) is a program created by a local middle school student to train kids in lifesaving skills. YEPP’s founder, Jon Reis, who is an eighth grade student at Dorseyville Middle School, notes that he “developed the YEPP program with the goal of expanding it throughout Allegheny County to train teenagers in lifesaving skills in an interactive and fun environment.” With support from the Pittsburgh Emergency Medicine Foundation and after months of training and practicing CPR, AED use, and first aid with paramedics from Foxwall EMS, Lower Valley Ambulance Service, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, ten local middle school students are ready to demonstrate their skills through a first aid competition that will be held on May 9, 2008 at Foxwall EMS from 6-8 PM. “These young people are learning today to provide lifesaving skills and will no doubt be the caregivers of our future!,” states Rick Duffy, Chief of Foxwall EMS. Robert Full, Chief, Allegheny County Bureau of Emergency Services, is scheduled to acknowledge the commitment of the ten students to learning and practicing lifesaving skills before an awards ceremony at the completion of the YEPP competition.

WHEN: May 9, 2008, 6-8 PM

WHERE: Foxwall Emergency Medical Service, 145 Squaw Run Road, Fox Chapel, PA

For more information, contact Foxwall’s Chief of Operations, Rick Duffy.

Foxwall EMS is expected this week to kick-off its $250,000 capital campaign to help cover the cost of building its new home along Squaw Run Road.

Having outgrown its location adjacent to the Fox Chapel municipal building along Fox Chapel Road, Foxwall will see its new home less than one mile away.

“We’ve gotten pretty crammed in here,” said Executive Director Rick Duffy, from a small lounge in the current site. “This building was designed for use back in the 1980s.”

The new operational base will sit on the former Trassoti property, next to McCahill Field.

Costs are expected to top $500,000, half of which already has been raised through private donations.

The service does not receive municipal funding.

Last week, the move kicked into high gear with crews razing the home that sat on the property. An official ground-breaking for the new headquarters was held Memorial Day.

Construction is expected to be complete in six months.

An expanded site will accommodate potential growth for the ambulance service, the last in western Pennsylvania that is all-volunteer and not affiliated with a fire company.

Currently, there are 37 members who operate from a cramped hall that includes a lounge, an office and a bedroom that is big enough only to hold bunk-beds.

“My office is a like a shoe box,” said Gordon Fisher, operations administrator. His tiny office, though well-organized, is brimming with books and paperwork and leaves little space for work.

The new garage will offer twice as much space for office work as well as separate bedrooms for crew members who choose to bunk there.

A highlight of the new site will be a training room, Duffy said. Members currently have to utilize space at the borough building for education or other exercises.

The move has been two years in the making. Founded in 1978, Foxwall has seen consistent growth and now responds to about 1,000 calls each year in Aspinwall, Blawnox and Fox Chapel.

Duffy said he eyed the Squaw Valley Road property particularly because it enables the group to remain centrally located to the residents it serves.

The new space also will enable increased offerings to the public, such as blood pressure screenings, flu shot distribution, first-aid training, CPR and AED classes.

Fox Chapel officials already have said they are interested in purchasing the existing Foxwall building for potential space for a new community library.

Foxwall Emergency Medical Service, the pre-hospital emergency response team serving the greater Aspinwall, Blawnox and Fox Chapel communities, will be moving to a new facility in 2006. Founded in 1978, Foxwall EMS has operated from its base at 403 Fox Chapel Rd. as a non-municipally funded, non-fire department related volunteer service, saving the neighboring boroughs millions in revenue during the past 28 years of operation.

Property donated by a former Fox Chapel resident with construction generously funded by the Borough of Fox Chapel will now enable the service to move to a new facility at the corner of Squaw Run and Hunt Roads. The site, located less than one mile from the current base, is a central location that will allow for continued rapid emergency response to the neighboring communities. Construction is scheduled to begin in May of 2006 with an expected completion date of October of 2006. The new facility will enable Foxwall EMS to provide a greater variety of public safety classes and activities. Over the years, the service has provided free flu shots, CPR classes and many other public safety training and awareness opportunities for residents. Foxwall will now also be able to provide regularly scheduled continuing educational courses for local EMS, fire and police personnel.

As Foxwall EMS continues to grow in 2006, so do its needs for qualified volunteer staff. Certified emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and emergency medical technician paramedics (EMT-Ps) willing to take on the pre-hospital needs of one of Pennsylvania’s only remaining volunteer emergency services should contact us.  Foxwall EMS will also underwrite education and training for those willing to commit to the responsibility of community public safety.

Tom Moore ’04 and Winston Posvar ’04 began volunteering with an Emergency Medical Service in the fall of 2002, and last summer were certified as Emergency Medical Technicians. Now each volunteers 12 hours or more a month with two different Emergency Medical Services that cover Sharpsburg, Etna, Indianola, and other communities north of the Allegheny River. After a few more hours of volunteering, both of these students will be qualified to attend patients.

Tom and Winston enjoyed the six-month EMT certification class, which covered the basics of CPR, splinting, patient assessment, and treatment. “The certification process was tough,” Tom notes. He has always wanted to be an EMT and is interested in a career in medicine. He plans to work for a campus EMS while he attends college. “In front of evaluators we had to take a pretend patient’s vital signs, put him on a back board, and begin a mock treatment.”

“I’ve learned so much from my fellow EMTs,” says Winston, who plans to go on to medical school. “I remember one case in particular, when we answered the call that a four-year-old boy had broken his leg. I was so impressed by the way my partners handled the situation, getting the boy to stop crying while they stabilized his leg.

“There are cases, like cardiac arrests, where people’s lives are in my hands – where an EMT can really make the difference between life and death. You don’t hope for that call, but you know that there’s something you can do if it comes. Sometimes this is overwhelming, but I know that I can handle it. I want to continue to work for my community and my country with whatever skills I can by being part of the infrastructure of support through medicine.”