Those suffering serious medical emergencies in the Western Salisbury Fire Department area will now have another layer of first response protection with the certification June 2 of nine department volunteers` who are trained emergency medical technicians.

The fire department is now being dispatched by the Lehigh County 911 Communications Center for cardiac arrest, unconscious or other similar life-threatening medical emergencies.

WSFD Medical Officer Jonathan Al-Khal said the certification was received from the Pennsylvania Department of Health after several months of interaction with the state to meet stringent requirements.

"We had several visits from Pennsylvania Health Department staffers over the previous months," Al-Khal said. "They examined our rolling equipment, assured that we carried the necessary first aid emergency medical equipment, defibrillators, back boards and other equipment needed to provide basic life support response, along with ambulance corps and trained police responders. They also checked the EMS qualifications of those WSFD volunteers who will be responding.

"We are not going to replace the excellent ambulance corps basic and advanced life support responders in our area," Al-Khal said. "There are times though, when ambulance personnel are tied up with other calls and we can provide an extra margin of medical response until ambulance corps advanced life support personnel can be on the scene."

Nine volunteers from WSFD have been trained and certified in basic life support services.

Several members of the department also have advanced life support first response training.

"For Salisbury residents, or those visiting or passing through our community, we want to help provide the critical response where the need for medical assistance is measured in minutes," Al-Khal said.