| The firefighters of the Mahtomedi Fire Department have staffed the ambulance since the service was founded in 1967. The firefighters of the department are cross trained in fire and emergency medical services.
The ambulance service was a BLS (Basic Life Support) and owned by the Wildwood Lions Club from its origination until 1998, when the need to upgrade the level of service to ALS (Advanced Life Support) became a necessity. In addition, the increase in call volume was beginning to take its toll on firefighters who requested compensation for their response and transport time. The Mahtomedi City Council and representatives from the Wildwood Lions negotiated a plan that resulted in the transfer of ownership of the ambulance service over to the City of Mahtomedi.
The application to upgrade to ALS was submitted to and approved by the Minnesota Department of Health. The approval to for a license to ALS service resulted in our department being only thethird “paid on call” department in the State of Minnesota to achieve such status.
Our efforts couldn’t have been achieved without the efforts of the City Council, the
Wildwood Lions Club and the White Bear Lake Fire Department who provided us with firefighter/paramedics to assist us until we had sufficient paramedics to go on our own. To this day the Wildwood Lions makes annual donations for ambulance equipment and the White Bear Lake Fire and Mahtomedi Fire Departments share firefighter/paramedics from time to time. |
