Sterling Heights fire officials gathered with Macomb County leaders on Tuesday to unveil two new initiatives aimed at improving emergency response times and public safety.

The first is a peak demand unit with two basic life support (BLS) ambulances staffed by four newly hired EMT firefighters. The unit operates Tuesday-Friday, 10 hours a day, to free up advanced life support (ALS) paramedic rigs for more severe calls.

The second initiative is medical priority dispatching, which attributes a color coded system (with blue being the highest priority, green the lowest ) to make sure the right service responds to 911 calls.

By strategically deploying BLS ambulances during peak demand hours and implementing a medical priority dispatch system, Sterling Heights can match the right resources to

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