Delhi Township Fire stays ready for any call, in any terrain, at any time

At Delhi Township Fire Department in rural Michigan, you never know where the next call will take you. One minute it’s a sprained ankle at a nursing home. The next, a hazardous materials incident in the woods. Or a search-and-rescue near the river.

That’s the life of an all-hazards response team—ready to answer any call, in any terrain, at any time. And the crew at Delhi shows up for every single one.

“My team is the best in the area,” says Fire Chief Brian Ball. “They’re ready to go at a moment’s notice, no matter what type of incident they’re responding to.”

That grit shows up on every call, from the mundane to the life-threatening. In a rural area where help isn’t always right around the corner, being prepared means being versatile, nimble and equipped for the unknown.

A rural department with range

Delhi Township Fire doesn’t specialize in one thing—they respond to everything. That means they face not only a wide range of emergencies, but also a variety of physical environments and logistical challenges.

“You have to be flexible and adapt to the changing environment at all times,” says firefighter Dustin Dickerson. “The more tools in your toolbox, the better.”

On any given day, that toolbox gets put to the test. Crews monitor patients move patients up and down stairs, over rough terrain and into tight spaces—often multiple times per call, and many times per shift.

“When we go on a call, we’re moving a patient up and down five, six times, and doing that eight or ten times a day. That’s the grind of EMS for us,” says Dickerson.

That kind of repetition can come with a cost: a sore back, strained muscles and the long-term wear of constant lifting. But powered solutions are helping to shift that burden.^{1, 2}

Tools that support the work

With Stryker’s Power-PRO 2 powered ambulance cot and Power-LOAD powered cot fastener, Delhi crews no longer have to manually lift patients in and out of the rig. Instead, they guide the system as it handles the load—helping reduce the physical strain on their backs.^{1, 2}

“Now it’s just the press of a button,” says Dickerson. “We’re guiding it, but the products we’re using that are powered are doing what our lower backs used to do.” ^{1, 2}

The department also uses Stryker’s powered stair chair, Xpedition, which can reduce a four-person carry down the stairs to a two-person job—freeing up personnel for other parts of the call.

“Now that we have ’em, it’s like—we’d never go back,” says Dickerson.

The department also uses the LUCAS chest compression system, which helps provide consistent, high-quality compressions during cardiac arrest. This lets the responders focus on other critical care tasks, knowing the system is handling the chest compressions reliably and effectively.³

For Chief Ball, making these investments is about one thing: supporting his team.

“I already have a good team of people who are phenomenal at what they do,” he says. “To be able to give them good equipment to perform for the community—that’s what makes me happy to be the fire chief.”

Empowered to perform

Every call Delhi FD answers brings its own set of challenges. But with their powered tools, Delhi’s first responders can keep showing up, knowing they have what they need to perform—without sacrificing patient care or their lower backs.^{1, 2, 4}