New York City’s cops may be the Finest, its firefighters may be the Bravest, but its paramedics are the best – and they’ve proved it by winning an international lifesaving competition.
A three-man team representing the FDNY’s EMS unit won top honors at the international 2006 Journal of Emergency Medical Services Games held in Baltimore on March 24.
Paramedics James Fallar and Joseph Hudak and EMT Joe Fortis, who all work at the EMS academy at Fort Totten in Queens, beat out medics from 12 other municipalities, including teams from London and Reno, Nev.
The winning trio arrived in Baltimore on Wednesday to qualify for the games and learned the next day that it was in the top five – a huge leap for a squad that placed 37th in last year’s preliminary contests.
The boys from New York blew away the competition during Friday’s final challenge – a mock helicopter crash.
Among the prizes was a $1,000 check that the team is donating to the family of fallen colleague Debbie Reeve, a paramedic who recently died of possible 9/11-related mesothelioma.