Two young boys were rescued after their inflatable raft drifted offshore near the big bridge on Beach Road Monday, prompting a flurry of response from public safety officials.
Tension Inside Oak Bluffs Fire Department Leads to Emergency
Services Separation
By JAMES KINSELLA
Following mounting dissension in the Oak Bluffs fire department, the
chairman of the board of selectmen moved this week to make the ambulance
service a separate department.
Selectman and board chairman Gregory Coogan said he made a
management decision Wednesday to split the two services, a move he said
was long overdue.
"I think there are inherent problems in the two
departments," Mr. Coogan said. "I think they have been at
odds over time."
If a patient at the Martha's Vineyard Hospital needs to go off-Island for further treatment at a mainland hospital, chances are the Oak Bluffs fire department will provide the lift. For more than 12 years the town fire department has been the primary transportation provider for the hospital, ferrying patients via ambulance to hospitals throughout New England and beyond. The off-Island transports provide both a vital service to the hospital and a financial boon to the town through a special purpose fund that is used to buy equipment and pay personnel.
