Pittsburgh officials began celebrating the EMS bureau’s 50th anniversary early Friday by recognizing two of the medics who responded to the very first call to city EMS in 1975.
“The first call was real exciting — it was a man who fell off his crutches,” said Bob Kennedy, who, alongside his then-partner Kathleen Fehl-Garrison, spoke outside of the City-County Building ahead of Mayor Ed Gainey proclaiming Friday “EMS Day” in the city. “The second call, after our shift was over, was a double shooting. So that’s how EMS began in Pittsburgh.”
EMS Chief Amera Gilchrist, the first woman and first African American to lead the bureau, recognized Mr. Kennedy and Ms. Fehl-Garrison with copies of the trip sheet — a rundown of the call and services provided — from that very first EMS call 50 years earlier.
“Entering into the field of pre-hospital care is a calling,” Chief Gilchrist said. “Our journey has not been without challenges, heartbreak, stress and the feeling that we have all experienced losing that first patient that we worked so hard to revive. Yet we continue to persevere and go on to the next call, providing comfort to those in need.”
From the late 1960s through 1975, pre-hospital care in the city was provided by Freedom House Ambulance Service. Based in the Hill District, it was one of the first ambulance services in the country to be staffed by paramedics — most of whom were Black — with training beyond basic first aid. In the 1960s, police and funeral homes acted as ambulance services.
Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt called the organization a pioneering force that set the standards for pre-hospital care.
“This organization not only championed a new era of EMS, but it also exemplified the spirit of community that we continue to uphold today,” he said, “and it also brought forth Pittsburgh EMS.”
Mayor Peter Flaherty ended the Freedom House program and started the city-run EMS service. What began as a federally funded program out of the mayor’s office eventually became a full-fledged bureau within the Department of Public Safety.
“All of us had a single purpose back then when we got hired for the city of Pittsburgh, and that was to take care of residents and visitors that were sick and injured,” Mr. Kennedy said. “We were so proud of being Pittsburgh paramedics, and [we] trust that the current men and women of the bureau feel the same way.”
The actual 50th anniversary celebration for the bureau will be held Aug. 25, the day the city’s medic service began. There will be a banquet that night and a social the day prior. More information is available at pghmedic50.org
First Published: January 31, 2025, 10:35 p.m.
Updated: February 1, 2025, 3:23 a.m.
