N.B. paramedics volunteer to replace P.E.I. colleagues grieving after fatal collision

About 120 paramedics in New Brunswick have volunteered to fill in for their colleagues in Prince Edward Island who are grieving the loss of two emergency workers.

Two P.E.I. paramedics and a patient died when their ambulance collided with a transport truck in rural New Brunswick on Tuesday, not far from Confederation Bridge.

Chris Hood, director of the Paramedic Association of New Brunswick, says his members will be issued 30-day courtesy licences in P.E.I. so they can volunteer on the Island during their time off.

He said Thursday the volunteers could be working on the Island within a matter of days, allowing P.E.I. paramedics to attend funeral services, celebrations of life or other memorials for those who died.

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Bernard Plourde, the Island’s paramedicine registrar who would issue the temporary licences, said Island EMS will inform him how many paramedics the province will need as backfill once it knows when the memorials are scheduled.

At that point, Plourde would send out a notice to both New Brunswick and nearby Nova Scotia to see who could work on the Island in place of some emergency workers.

Plourde said he was told he would get more information from Island EMS on the timing of the backfills by Monday at the latest.

Since the crash on Route 16 in Melrose, N.B., earlier this week, Plourde said paramedic organizations across the country have reached out by email and phone.

“I see requests … from Newfoundland all the way to Alberta wanting to help with this tragedy,” he told The Canadian Press.

Hood said the willingness of so many paramedics in New Brunswick to help out their colleagues shows how tight-knit the sector is in the Maritimes.

“Provincial borders mean nothing to these individuals, they just want to help their colleagues and friends,” Hood said.

Nova Scotia’s paramedicine regulator Karl Kowalczyk did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

The 56-year-old male driver of the ambulance, a 77-year-old woman and a 23-year-old woman died at the scene of the crash on Tuesday, New Brunswick RCMP have said.

RCMP said they believe the westbound ambulance collided head-on with the truck on Route 16, in Melrose, N.B. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.