WFD to Add Spare Ambulance to Fleet

Westwood fire officials are about to add a new ambulance to their fleet of emergency response vehicles. 

The Westwood Board of Selectmen gave Fire Chief William Scoble the green light on Monday to acquire a used ambulance to the town's fleet. 

"This would be a spare vehicle," Scoble explained to the Selectmen. "Not a vehicle that's fully equipped, because equipment costs far more than the vehicle."

Officials will store smaller, baseline equipment on the vehicle, Scoble said. The ambulance features a 2006 chassis with a 2007 model modular box, and has clocked about 90,000 miles, Scoble said. Most of those miles, he added, were clocked on the highway. The vehicle's body work is in need of some touch-ups, but does not require a paint job.

The drive behind looking at the vehicle is so that Westwood won't have to rely on a spare ambulance that is shared between Westwood and five sounding communities; Westwood currently needs to obtain the vehicle from Canton when needed.

"For a number of years I've been watching to see if there's a good, used, smaller vehicle to store and maintain, but that would still fit our needs," Scoble said. "This one came across, and it does fit our needs." 

Officials will pay for the vehicle using money that is already in the town's capital account, specifically for equipment and ambulance use. 

"It probably has far more value than what we would be paying for it," Scoble said. "I'm also just looking to the future, as far as changes and how busy we're going to be. I think it's going to be good to position ourselves if we have a small vehicle."