The following information has been submitted by our former historian, Richard Leven.

Dansville Ambulance Company - The First 25 Years

In early 1968, a group from the Dansville Fire Department decided to establish an ambulance squad.  In the 1940's and 50's, the ambulance in Dansville was handled by the funeral directors of the area.  My dad was the first Leven to be an ambulance driver.  He drove for Wilson & Altmeyer and the Chamberlin Funeral Home.

I went on my first ambulance call with my dad, we went to Rochester and on the way through Geneseo (no expressway back then!), he went around the monument in the middle of Main Street on the left side.  I saw a police car setting on the corner and I figured he would come and give my dad a ticket, but he went on his way.  In the early 1960's the Dansville Health Department took over the operations of the ambulance when the funeral directors notified the village board they would no longer be giving the village this service.  The Dansville Police Department manned the ambulance for the health department.  In 1968 the operations were turned over to the Dansville Volunteer Ambulance Squad.

The squad received their first First Aid Course from the late Harold "Hammy" Fries and the late Dr. Breen.  The first meeting of the new squad was held on October 20, 1968 and we accepted the operations of the ambulance in the Town of Dansville.  (Little note: my first call on the ambulance along with my brother Skip, was at Foster Wheeler Energy Corporation and 9PM.  Sorry to say we did not start out too good, for our patient died shortly after arriving at the old Dansville Memorial Hospital)

We had a squad of approximately 60 men from all four companies of the Dansville Fire Department (Protectives, Union Hose, Jackson Hose, and Hook & Ladder companies) and we were under the command of our first captain, the late John Welch. 

This photo and caption appeared in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle in 1969.  Hard to read here, but this ambulance was known as 'AMB 53'.

We first used a Ford station wagon for the ambulance that the health department was using.  With the help of the Dansville Lions Club and the members of the Dansville Fire Department, we have been able to purchase several ambulance since then with no cost to the tax payers of the village.  We held house to house canvasses of the village and surrounding towns.  We would hold one of these types of canvasses  every three years.  In 1992 it was decided to go to a mail canvass for donations each year and then save until we have enough to purchase a new ambulance.

The system of scheduling the members for duty was first introduced b y Dick Leven back in 1968.  At that time we had 2 members on the day shift and 2 members on the night shift with 2 more members on the back-up.  Today we run with 3 on both shifts with no backup assigned.

The first ambulance was housed behind the Hook & Ladder truck in the North Dansville Town Hall.  Later, the ambulance was moved to the Union Hose Truck House on Ossian Street (now known as White Horse Auto) where the ambulance was parked behind the Union Hose pumper.  This made it very inconvenient because when there was an ambulance call, the truck had to be moved first.  In 1971, a permanent ambulance garage was built at 15 Ossian Street which is now occupied by Gould Pumps.  That building was dedicated to John "Nipper" Welch.

In 1979, the need for more volunteers became more apparent and the corps needed to look outside the ranks of the four fire department companies.  Seeing the need to recruit individuals who may not wish to be firefighters, the Dansville Fire Department Ambulance Company was inaugurated in as the official fifth company of the Dansville Fire Department.  Here is a newspaper article about it from September 27, 1979:

In the late 1980's and throughout the early 1990's, EMS grew out of it's infancy and Dansville Ambulance grew along with it.  A basic level New York State EMT course went from 45 hours in length to 130 hours.  Dansville Ambulance responded to a little over 500 calls in 1970.  During the 90's the call volume more than doubled.  Simple first aid supplies were supplemented by more advanced equipment such as Automated External Defibrillators and Intermediate Life Support. 

AT LEFT - David Leven, Nancy Leven and David Forester were the first three from Dansville Ambulance to become Advanced EMT's at the Critical Care level.   AT RIGHT - Dansville Ambulance's first diesel powered ambulance: a 1991 Ford F350 Type I Modular Ambulance.

As the Dansville Ambulance Co. was getting ready to celebrate it's first 25 years, it's leaders were ever mindful of the vast changes taking place in EMS and kept looking ahead to the future and anticipating the company's needs to meet all the new challenges that laid ahead.  Having just three people running the corps (1 captain and 2 lieutenants) was becoming impractical and many projects and administrative duties were being delayed far too long due to the lack of proper attention.  In 1993 the corps voted to change it's By-Laws to more closely reflect the officer structure in place today.

Click on the following links for more history of the Dansville Ambulance Company: