This evening marks the 56th anniversary of St. Albert having its own ambulance service.
At a celebratory address of the city's first ambulance on Oct. 18, 1977, then-mayor Richard Plain said having an ambulance meant St. Albert would no longer have an “inadequate level of emergency first aid care.”
The Gazette's coverage of the address mentions that the ambulance cost the city some $18,000; however, in-kind donations from the St. Albert Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, the Kiwanis Club, and the Ladies Auxiliary, totalling $2,850, were used to purchase three portable resuscitators and other equipment for the service.
Despite running a 24/7 service, the city's inaugural paramedic team included just three staff: then-fire chief Gary Alford, Frank Hansen, and Lorna Jensen.
“From this time the real benefits will occur each time an injured party received high-calibre treatment with the opening of this facility,” Plain is quoted as saying.
Past issues of the Gazette, dating as far back as Jan. 1, 1949, are available to view online thanks to the University of Alberta's Peel's Prairie Provinces archive.
