Emergency Service choice

EMS services
At Portugal most of the services will be EMS. Portugal is the 5th safest country in the world so even though we have patrol cars around all the time, SWAT isn't seen that much and at the moment our police services don't own any helicopters whatsoever
Fires are a big deal when we get to the summer so it's one thing I love to build, but EMS are the majority of calls that fire stations receive. For example, my grandparents live in a rural area, the nearest fire station has 2 ambulances, 1 non-emergency ambulance, 1 forest engine and 1 batallion chief. In the city ambulances are still very present at fire stations, and since EMS Station cost doesn't rise like the rest of the buildings, well, I build more of them xD

Indeed it is, each region generally has it's own Ambulance Service (separate from the fire services), e.g. Yorkshire Ambulance Service, lots of private ambulance services have also jumped into the market of event medical cover and also taking on NHS contracts for an area. So pretty much every ambulance in my set-up is in an ambulance station rather than merged with fire stations.

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Personally I prefer building fire stations. For one I've always been crazy about the fire service. Also I enjoy making different combinations of fire apparatus in stations. Always an interesting setup for every company/department.

I currently have fire stations in NJ and Florida. Big difference. Hard to find Hazmat in Florida along the panhandle.

Lately I've been focusing on EMS stations. In NJ most of them are Volunteer which have 2 to 4 ambulances. And any paid squads have the same amount.

However in Okaloosa County Florida their EMS stations are oddly scattered with only one ambulance at each location, two at most. 12 ambulances covering only 1 county is quite challenging. And the same with fire. In Burlington County NJ you have fire departments from just one or two engines to several engines, trucks, and special units. In my county in Florida their apparatus is small. One or two engines and a truck and support vehicles. Maybe one tanker for an area. Still searching more companies to build when I get paid again. Takes me too long to make 1 Million Credits for a fire station and my patience is thin for that.

Anyway you can tell each station has their own ways. Especially that paid fire stations do 3 or 4 man trucks when volunteers do a full truck.

I only built police for the combination calls. Though Iike them now I only build them for coverage purposes.

Well we have 3 major "groups" that take care of EMS calls here

INEM which stands for National Medical Emergency Institute and it's from the government of Portugal
CVP which is the Portuguese Red Cross
Bombeiros (firefighters) along the country that basicily cover most of the EMS calls we have

You will probably see as many ambulances from "INEM" in the city as you will see from FD due to the fact that INEM has ambulances stationed at fire stations and from my experience (atleast the stations where I live at) sends these ambulances from INEM first, probably because INEM pays like 85% of the ambulance cost when they buy it and the FD only pays the other smaller %, which means they can have another 1-2 ambulances for a smaller price, and by sending this before the ones they bought you will be saving your 100% cost from getting "used"

But back to the topic, most ambulances at Portugal are from FD

Only INEM has HEMS as far as I know, MCUs are owned both by INEM and Red Cross, Doctor Cars are mostly owned by INEM but there a few both from CVP and some FDs and along the Doctor Cars we are getting Emergency Motorcycles which are both owned by INEM and FDs

Also, since we were talking about INEM ambulances at FDs here is a picture of the new INEM ambulances going to the FDs
[Blocked Image: http://www.strob.pt/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/42TZ02.jpg]
There are some INEM ambulances at Red Cross too, and the new ones are fully yellow as if they were normal but have a red cross logo and say red cross + (localotion) on the sides (and maybe back)

We also have private ambulances but I don't know much about those, I can only tell that some private ambulances that transport patients between hospitals or similiar (like KTW) aren't allowed to use lights or sirens

Very interesting. Especially with the private EMS companies. And that's it I'm moving to Portugal! Haha. For a lower to no cost for ambulance service I'm on board with that. Ambulance costs over here are ridiculous.

Anyway that Ambulance looks sweet. Definitely stands out in color.

I personally enjoy building up fire, i am enjoying building up my ambulance set up at the moment which unfortunately is going to require me to purchase over 500 vehicles but oh well

Ouch! That's gonna take a while! I'd go totally nuts.

Quote from rescuenut93

Very interesting. Especially with the private EMS companies. And that's it I'm moving to Portugal! Haha. For a lower to no cost for ambulance service I'm on board with that. Ambulance costs over here are ridiculous.

Anyway that Ambulance looks sweet. Definitely stands out in color.

INEM uses this color for all vehicles except special operations units (unmarked or a few marked but dark blue or grey/silver, mainly SUVs or smaller vans related to Logistics)
Since you like the color so much here you can see how they look across our units
[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/SN7PDcx.jpg]
(VW LT - Ambulance, Nissan - Logistics SUV , 2x VW Crafter - Hazmat, 2x Iveco Tow a trailer with stuff to build a campaign hospital, which includes a lifter (with an engine too) that helps to load/unload all stuff, VW Crafter - Logistics Unit (also builds Campaign Hospitals) and the last Silver VW I'm not sure, probably just to carry extra personnel to the scene
[Blocked Image: http://www.sulinformacao.pt/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Instala%C3%A7%C3%B5es-INEM-MARF_2.jpg] All vans are ambulances except for this sprinter with scene lights which is a VIC (catastrophe intervention unit) and the blue VW to transport crew, and one of the ambulances is a children care ambulance

All yellow cars are doctor cars except the one next to the blue van which is a retired doctor car

Also all helicopters are yellow like the rest of the units except for the Kamov which have their own yellow and orange colors

And now you know a little more about INEM xD

Quote from FloDispo

Hey All, a few questions from a german rescue-nerd. have been an active vff for a while now, and playing the german version of the game. Now I know things are very different to the original here, but I just wondered...most of ya'll call it the "american version" but how does that, the selection of apliances and rescue organisations work out for players from the UK,Oz & NZ ? Even in America I'd think there'd be more than the game currently has on offer ?
Is there a chance to get in touch with the developer and make mission- appliance or general suggestions like there is in the german version ?
in my current set up I'm playing down under in Ballarat/VIC, there is alliances tht cover the Melbourne area, but I wonder how they cope with the limited choice-they've got different police units, they've got plant-fire services, the SES, bare specialised units...but doesn't it get a little boring the way the game is set up now ?
*Note : this is not a rant post, I'm just trying to get involved, understand and enjoy missionchief as much as I do Leitstellenspiel, maybe I could get some feedback or your thoughts on this ppl ?

I noticed you have made a topic with this exact same question. Please keep this topic on track.

Quote from TACRfan

I noticed you have made a topic with this exact same question. Please keep this topic on track.

right, gonna remove and stick to the other entry

police and ems only because im tired of getting building collapses in the middle of forests... cant play realistically with the fire part...