HIGHLY-trained firefighters will be sent now to more medical emergencies in Wiltshire than ever before.

If a fire engine can get to the scene of an emergency sooner than an ambulance, the county's firefighters will give emergency first aid until paramedics arrive.

The new service was launched this week, following a joint initiative between Wiltshire Fire Brigade and Wiltshire Ambulance Trust.

The aim of the new service is to treat as quickly as possible a wider range of medical emergencies, helping to prevent conditions worsening.

For many years, fire engines have been equipped with defibrillators and oxygen supplies and on many occasions have been used when it is known that firefighters could get to the patient quicker than an ambulance.

Assistant Chief Fire Officer Peter Baxter said that now a wider range of medical emergencies, each of which ultimately could lead to heart failure if not quickly treated, could be attended to by firefighters.

He said: "We have fire engines in almost every sizeable village or town in Wiltshire, and some are fairly remote.

"With communications from the joint emergency services control centre in Devizes, we are ideally placed to mobilise crews with equipment and skills to start patient treatment and prevent heart failure.

"At the same time, an ambulance with paramedics will also be sent, able to take over from our crew when they arrive on the scene."

Medical conditions to which a fire engine might be mobilised include chest pains, unconsciousness or unresponsiveness, fitting, severe breathing problems and allergic collapse.

The director of operations for the ambulance service, Paul Gates, said: "Intervention by skilled responders within eight minutes can dramatically improve the chances of full recovery when the heart begins to fail.

"By mobilising fire engines with crews trained by the ambulance service, we can deliver help much earlier to a range of conditions that can put the heart under strain.

"In this way, we can prevent, rather than treat, heart failure and provide a much stronger recovery path."