HOMER — A new air medical transport service in the are brought its helicopter to Homer on Saturday. The vehicle will benefit both the air service and local emergency personnel.
Homer Volunteer Fire Department Fire Chief Randy King said the visit gives the local emergency personnel a chance to get to know the new service and its procedures in case they need to work with them, and to see their equipment up close in a non-emergency situation.
The new service, Air-Evac, is based in Lancaster and is in competition with Med-Flight out of Columbus.
“It’s an extra resource,” King said.
Also on hand for the visit were personnel from the Utica and Mount Vernon fire departments.
Mount Vernon Chief Chris Menapace was on hand and explained that “We want to make sure there is a seamless transition between our care and their care,” and cited the need to know, among other things, their communication set-up and protocols.
Air-Evac serves an area with a 70-mile radius of its base in Lancaster. It is part of a larger network of 105 bases headquartered in West Plains, Mo. It has four other bases in Ohio: Chillicothe, East Liverpool, Portsmouth and Brown County, as well as bases near Parkersburg and Wheeling, W. Va.