FIREFIGHTERS have been called to 82 medical incidents after they began answering ambulance calls in the last month.

Wokingham's fire crew are one of four stations to trial answering emergency calls for ambulances in addition to their usual fire incidents.

They work full time at fire stations but are given extra training by the South Central Ambulance Service along with crews in Buckingham, Abingdon and Didcot. 

In the first month of the trial firefighters have been rushed to an average of two life-threatening medical emergencies each day.

The emergency service were scrambled to 73 of the most serious calls and nine less urgent calls in the 34 days since the trial started on Thursday, December 3.

Nic Morecroft, lead community response manager at SCAS said: "We are pleased to have embarked on this trial with our partner organisations and are incredibly grateful for their commitment and support in order to get it up and running for the benefit of the local communities.

"Having the extra response will complement our existing Community Responder Schemes and Public Accessible Defibrillators which are also in the area helping to save more lives."

The service is expected to be rolled out to other firestations including Abingdon, Didcot and Buckingham.

The co-responder schemes aim to ensure a trained responder is on the scene of an emergency as soon as possible.

Speaking at the start of the trial Neil Carter, group manager for Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: "The crews at Wokingham Fire Station have enthusiastically embraced this opportunity to enhance their service to the public.

"The additional training delivered by paramedics to support the co-responding initiative has increased both the skills and confidence of firefighters for dealing with medically related incidents."

He said all 24 firefighters at the station had been given the training and with the station being crewed around the clock there would always be a team available for an emergency call.