Fantazia was cancelled last year @ Mullins Center due to concerns about drug "molly"
So once again, if you needed an ambulance late last night for a real life threatening emergency (not self-induced) you would have had to await precious (many) minutes for it to arrive from a surrounding town.
Two AFD ambulances at UMass Mullins Center last night for drunk patrons
Yes, in spite of extra staffing paid for by our friends at UMass that allowed for five fully staffed ambulances, and despite the two extra out-of-town ambulances Chief Nelson required the Mullins Center to hire ... it still wasn't enough!
AFD Engine 3 at Mullins Center last night
AFD had to use Engine 1 as an emergency medical unit to respond with trained personnel who can help stabilize the patient, but they cannot transport to a hospital.
A couple weeks back a cyclist with a serious head injury was first tended to in this way but had to wait for a Northampton ambulance to transport him to Baystate Critical Care unit in Springfield.
A couple weeks back a cyclist with a serious head injury was first tended to in this way but had to wait for a Northampton ambulance to transport him to Baystate Critical Care unit in Springfield.
South Hadley Medic 2 staging at AFD North Station last night
The Mullins Center concert had a dozen transports for ETOH (intoxicated) patrons in less than four hours and AFD handled another five (so 17 in total) not related to the concert.
Interestingly the ambulances from South Hadley and Easthampton had to stage at North Station 1.5 miles away because Mullins Center management did not like the "image" presented when they staged on site, as has been the previous custom.
Interestingly the ambulances from South Hadley and Easthampton had to stage at North Station 1.5 miles away because Mullins Center management did not like the "image" presented when they staged on site, as has been the previous custom.
AFD at UMass Pierpont Dorm last night for intoxicated student
This disaster comes in the wake of UMass releasing the $160,000 Ed Davis Report, a Monday morning quarterbacking of the Blarney Blowout where alcohol is cited as a major contributing factor.
AFD Engines 1&3 at Amherst College Frost Library for drunk student last night
Mullins Center Command terminated, Fantazia concert over. Easthampton and South Hadley ambulances heading home (after long night).
— Larry Kelley (@amherstac) September 20, 2014
At what point does this become a subject for our local state legislators to address?
ReplyDeleteWe need some compensation for this!
Self induced or not, it's still a life threatening emergency. Blame aside, we need more emergency personnel and equipment. As a geezer, I'm getting ready to move to Sunderland. How are their services?
ReplyDeleteJohn Musante says everything is fine.
ReplyDeleteWhy are we overlooking the easy solution to all this? Make Amherst a dry town! Problem solved.
ReplyDeleteSure the kids will go to Hadley to buy booze, but they can't take it into the Mullins Center or other area venues. So they can drink in their rooms but not in businesses.
but they can't take it into the Mullins Center or other area venues.
ReplyDeleteThey can't now which is why you have the problems you do.
1: They "pregame" instead -- "pregaming" is drinking as much as possible before going and this becomes problematic because their BACs are still rising during the event.
2: They switch to substances other than ETOH. (Stuff like "Molly"...) Girls conceal it in their underwear and you aren't going to find it with anything short of a strip search.
3: I say again that I'd love to see a total tox scan of, (and demographic breakdown of), say, the next 100 "intoxicated patrons" transported out of Mullins Center events. I firmly believe that:
(A) You'd find medically significant levels of substances other than ETOH.
(B) To the point where, in some/many cases, the ETOH alone wouldn't necessitate a transport -- the medical crisis is caused by drugs not booze.
(C) You'd also find that a lot of the patrons are NOT UMass students.
These are public events marketed to the general public -- UM students pay the same price as anyone else. (They actually pay more because while a few dollars for parking (actually for the UMPD traffic control detail) is included in the ticket price, they are walking to the event).
The Mullins Center is essentially leased to a subdivision of ComCast, a for-profit commercial entity and why the AFD isn't asking for a couple dollars from each ticket sold is beyond me.
Attention Jeff Parr: This is how you fund another firefighter position....
Larry, why couldn't AFD stage at the Sewerage Treatment Plant?
ReplyDeleteThat's town (not UM) property and if I am not mistaken, would provide paved-roadway access to (a) the back (service) entrance to the Mullin's Center *and* (b) the road that crosses the 116 bypass -- it comes out just before the bridge.
I may be thinking of the new UM powerplant (which is accessed via the same road) and this is a restricted area that the public does not have access to -- and there likely are some gates needing to be unlocked, and you may need to hire a detail officer to stand guard duty -- but this would provide AFD a direct route off campus from the Mullins Center without having to go past Boyden and though those traffic lights. Once they reached the regular road, they could then take the exit for 116 South heading for 9 West or cross the bridge and go out Rocky Hill.
There also are a lot of places to stage ambulances "out of sight" in the so-called "Cold Storage" area behind Parking Services. UMass has a lot of land there that they can't develop because it's wetlands (trust me, it's "wetlands" -- I once got "my" UM vehicle stuck in there, and AFD would want to be careful as to exactly *where* in there they staged).
But there are places where UMass was filling in the swamp (like they did in North Village) before they had to stop, the area behind (parking) Lot 11, and that would be an ideal out-of-sight area to stage ambulances as well -- they'd come out at the traffic light on Governor's Drive across from the PVTA garage.
The North Fire Station strikes me as an asinine location....
Considering how the night turned out the Sewage Treatment Plant would have been the perfect metaphor.
ReplyDeletePoint is if the Mullins Center really wants to protect their "image," then they damn well better figure out this recurring problem.
Larry, The Mullen's Center is PRIVATELY RUN == you can't blame UMass for this!!!!
ReplyDeleteAs an aside, why don't you sniff around -- there are lots of rumors circulating about how much money the university is loosing with this arrangement, how everything they have over there costs major $$$$.
But put blame where it belongs -- on the people who scheduled/held the concert -- the PRIVATE MANAGEMENT OUTFIT.
Oh, and do you have a student/nonstudent tally of transports out of Mullins?