Celebrating National EMS Week
It's National EMS Week and this year’s theme – “We Care. For Everyone.” – focuses on meeting the needs of all our 67,000 citizens. In West Chester, every firefighter also serves as an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) professional. They are trained to be ready for emergencies of all kinds around the clock.
Meet Josh Ulrey, a firefighter-paramedic who has proudly served the community for the past three years.
Q: How long have you been with the West Chester Fire Department, and what’s your role? A: My name is Josh Ulrey with West Chester Fire Department. I’ve been here for about three years now. I work as a firefighter-paramedic, which means I get to do a little bit of everything, responding to medical emergencies, helping with fire prevention and response, and assisting wherever I’m needed.
Q: What do you love most about your job? A: What I love most about the job is getting out and just helping the community, whether that’s through an emergency run or getting out and doing community events. I enjoy being involved and being visible, getting to meet people who are curious about what we do and why it matters. What we do is really important and rewarding.
Q: What kinds of calls do you typically respond to? A: Every day is different. It could be a car accident, or we could be helping somebody who is injured and needs assistance. We get calls for medical runs, fire runs, and all kinds of other things. There’s a wide range. No matter the call, we show up ready to help in any way we can.
Q: What do you wish more people knew about your work? A: I think the value that we offer here is that we’re available 24/7. We’re on shift every day, and we try to lower our response times to respond to emergencies as quickly as possible. We train every day. That might be medical training, drills, or vehicle extraction scenarios. We make sure we’re prepared for whatever call we get. There’s a lot of effort behind the scenes to make sure we’re always ready.
Q: What do you enjoy most about serving the people of West Chester? A: What I enjoy most about serving the community of West Chester is showing up and helping the citizens. This sometimes means I am seeing them on one of the worst days of their lives, and trying to mitigate the issues they’re having to make their day just a little bit better. Being able to provide comfort or solutions in those moments means a lot to me.