At the Virginia Beach Rescue Council (VBRC), the Vice President seat most recently held by KVRS Captain Marisa Rifenburgh has been assumed by KVRS President Kevin Lipscomb. The Virginia Beach Rescue Council, or VBRC, is a democratic forum for the leadership of all ten of the city’s volunteer rescue squads, plus the city’s volunteer EMS… Continue reading VB Rescue Council leader seat goes from one KVRS leader to another
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COVID-19
KVRS members have been extremely busy adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately we have a relatively good inventory of PPE. Our members have been learning and adapting to frequent and major changes in clinical protocols and operational guidelines as the outbreak has progressed. Our volunteers have not shied away from their duty obligations and are… Continue reading COVID-19
Honors for Jim Brewer
Our Life Member, past vice president, and long-time capital grant coordinator, Paramedic Jim Brewer, has received this year’s Hampton Roads Volunteer Achievement Award in the Individual Adult category! This award recognizes the region’s most outstanding volunteers based on their length of service, initiative and impact on the community. Among many other things, Jim’s impact includes… Continue reading Honors for Jim Brewer
Hurricane Matthew – update
Thanks to emergency grants from the state and the city, we’ve been able to place orders for two brand new ambulances to replace those destroyed by Hurricane Matthew!
2016 demand
KVRS responded to more than 25 calls per day (transporting more than 17 patients per day) in 2016, average.
Hurricane Matthew
Hurricane Matthew delivered disastrous flooding across the city, and as we worked to help people suffering illnesses and injuries, two of our ambulances sustained flooding that was bad enough that the vehicles were declared total losses. This represents an overnight loss of one-third of our fleet.
Sixth ambulance
We’ve placed our brand new ambulance, “925” in service, thanks to donations from the community and a state Rescue Squad Assistance Fund grant. For the first time in our history, we have six ambulances in our fleet, and they all share the same basic custom-tailored design. This arrangement is critical to operational efficiency.
KVRS on the Hampton Roads Show
Our member, Paramedic Kate East (center, below), appeared with EMT Terry Connelly from our sister squad, Ocean Park, on the Hampton Roads Show today to talk about our system and how dependent we are on donations and recruits from the community.
Ambulance configuration
Today we made two documents publicly available in the hopes they may be helpful to other squads that are ordering new ambulances. The KVRS Ambulance Detailed Technical Requirements and the KVRS Ambulance Graphics Package are full of lessons we’ve learned over four years of very detailed specification work.