A budding ambulance company established its first official station via a partnership with an idle Jefferson Hills fire company.

Pittsburgh Safety Consultants was founded about two years ago in McDonald. It would serve as a medical standby for events such as high school football games, swim meets, big fairs and other activities.

It recently launched its ambulance division, Pittsburgh Safety & Health EMS, last month and moved its vehicle and equipment into the Gill Hall Volunteer Fire Co. station along Gill Hall Road in Jefferson Hills.

Thomas Perez, assistant chief and vice president of operations, said he is grateful for the opportunity to better serve the area.

“It feels great to be able to provide service to a community that we serve,” Perez said. “It’s a better feeling to know we actually have a home for our ambulance, a home for our crew where they can cover stand-by for emergency purposes and non-emergency purposes. To be able to have the vehicle, where we can hold training, where we can hold our supplies and equipment to be readily available to respond if needed is a big plus and a step up from where we were. We’re feeling like a real company.”

The part-time ambulance service handles non-emergency transports four days a week to and from area hospitals.

“We contacted the local hospitals to find out where the need was,” Perez said. “The majority of them said overnight hours because, in the overnight hours, they don’t really have any ambulance service that are up and running that can do (non-emergency) transports.

“A lot of times patients wind up staying in the hospital emergency rooms overnight when they don’t need to be, and they wind up taking up a bed (hospitals) can use for another patient that’s coming in. That can cause a backlog at emergency rooms. By us providing the service in the overnight hours, we’re able to transport and clear out the ER so that way additional patients can get treated.”

Transportation is available Sunday through Wednesday 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.

The ambulance service has 42 EMTs, eight paramedics, four nurses and two physicians. It does between four and six transports per night.

Jefferson Hills’ primary emergency ambulance service is through SouthEast Regional EMS. There is mutual aid from Baldwin EMS.

Perez said there is no agreement with SouthEast Regional to assist with emergency calls yet.

Gill Hall firefighters have not responded to an emergency for about two years. They were taken off borough dispatch and insurances in an ongoing effort of a council majority who would like the nearly 73-year-old company to join Jefferson Hills Fire Rescue before being reinstated.

JHFR is the merged company of Jefferson 885 and Floreffe volunteer fire companies.

Councilman Keith Reynolds said he and his colleagues did not vote to have the ambulance company in Gill Hall, but is glad to see some activity in the fire station.

“It’s their building,” Reynolds said. “It’s their property. If they choose to rent it out to an ambulance company, then it’s their prerogative. It has nothing to do with council. This is just showing Gill Hall is still committed to their community. They’re committed to their organization. Hopefully, this shows council their commitment and change their stance and reopen Gill Hall.”

Perez said Gill Hall members would be able to help with transports as part of the partnership.

“They would still be able to have a presence in the community and be able to service the community,” Perez said. “Some of their members will be on the ambulance. We’ll be doing training together.”

Perez said they plan on offering service seven days a week at those times in the next few weeks and 24-hours a day within four months.

Gill Hall Fire Chief Calvin Felix and Perez are both volunteers at Blaine Hill Volunteer Fire Co. in Elizabeth Township. That is where they talked about having Perez’s team use the borough station.

“They’re a nonprofit organization,” Felix said. “They’ve nothing to do with the emergency services in the borough. Our body saw it as a plus renting it out to them. They’ve all got good credentials training-wise. We see it here as a help to make the payments to keep us alive. I feel they’re going to do good things here.”

More information about Pittsburgh Safety & Health EMS is available at pghsafety.com.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)