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Beginning on Jan. 1, 2025, both the Pelham Fire Department and Alabaster Fire Department will begin offering their own in-house ambulance transport service which will lead to shorter waiting times for those facing emergency medical situations. (Reporter photos/Noah Wortham)

By NOAH WORTHAM | Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Thanks to the help of the Shelby County Commission, there will soon be more ambulances in the county to provide emergency aid than ever before.

On Tuesday, Sept. 24, key stakeholders in the county joined members of the Alabaster and Pelham Fire Departments at Shelby Baptist Medical Center to celebrate the delivery of the first new ambulances to each respective department. The new ambulances are part of the county’s continued initiative to improve emergency transport services for its residents.

“This has been a long awaited time,” Commissioner Jon Parker said. “We know there’s a problem with transport in the fire and EMS side. Public safety is one of our number one things here in Shelby County.”

Beginning on Jan. 1, 2025, both the Pelham Fire Department and Alabaster Fire Department will begin offering their own in-house ambulance transport service which will lead to shorter waiting times for those facing emergency medical situations.

“You can’t have too much EMS (and) you can’t have too much medical support,” Pelham Mayor Gary Waters said. “This is good for everybody. Very seldom do we get to come together and everybody wins. But this is one of those situations, and I’m proud to be a part of it.”

In an agreement with Alabaster and Pelham, Shelby County provided the capital to pay for the transport vehicles and the municipalities agreed to provide staffing and personnel.

“I’m excited about this day,” Commissioner Ward Williams said. “Not only will it help Alabaster and Pelham but by these being here, it’ll help the citizens of eastern Shelby County where they don’t have to wait as long for something to get over there. This is actually something that will save lives. It’s not every day you get to be a part of something like this.”

Shelby Baptist Medical Center CEO Holly Dean was present for the event and expressed her gratitude for how this service will help the hospital and its patients.

“We’re just excited,” Dean said. “It is going to be great to have more ambulances to support our patients, and we here are equally excited to continue to be a provider to support those efforts.”

The presence of the ambulances will benefit more than just the residents of Alabaster and Pelham thanks to the combined efforts of the fire departments through shared mutual aid agreements.

As a result of mutual aid, when one department is dealing with a large-scale incident, other local departments will be able to deploy their own ambulances to immediately assist—further strengthening each city’s efforts and the amount of support offered to residents in need.

“The result of all this really is we will have more ALS (Advanced Life Support) transport units positioned inside our portion of the county than we’ve ever had before,” Alabaster Fire Chief Tim Love said.

Additionally, the presence of the new ambulances will greatly affect response times as residents will no longer have to solely rely on private services when in an emergency situation.

“It’s going to be a great change for us,” Loves said. “We were facing length response times. Private ambulance service has been great in the past but changes, especially after COVID-19, affected us drastically. It was harder to get ambulances. It’s harder on them to keep employees.”

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