Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps

Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps celebrated National EMS Week with an open house at its headquarters Sunday.

RVAC is celebrating EMS Week with an open house at its Osborn Avenue headquarters Sunday, May 22, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The entire community is invited to tour ambulances, learn about equipment used and receive training in hands-only CPR.

A 47-year-old male pedestrian was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital with serious injuries after being struck by a vehicle on West Main Street Wednesday evening.

The Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps is looking to switch its emergency dispatch provider from the Riverhead Police Department to Suffolk County Fire Rescue and Emergency Services. Riverhead Town officials don't consent to the move.

“The town's just allowing all this growth but they're not growing our budget. We can't sustain this any longer,” Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps President Garrett Lake said.

A Florida woman visiting a friend in Jamesport went into cardiac arrest and almost died in March. Last month, she got to meet the Riverhead Ambulance crew that saved her life and thank them for what they did.

Nancy Reyer thanked Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps last week with a $5,000 donation to acknowledge their caring and concern for her late son, Michael Hubbard, who was critically burned by a highly flammable gel candle in May 2011.

Riverhead Ambulance District calls have more than doubled in the past 20 years. Today, the Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance has 154 members, its highest number ever. Its headquarters is the same facility that was “already too small" to meet the 2,000 calls answered in 1999, according to the town's 2003 adopted comprehensive plan. Now, RVAC responds to more than 4,000 calls annually.

Forty-seven residents were evacuated from a building operated by Concern for Independent Living on West Main Street late last night, after first responders found temperatures in excess of 90 degrees on all four floors of the building, which has 50 units housing people with psychiatric disabilities.

The Riverhead ambulance and a car collided at the intersection of CR 105 and Main Road this afternoon. Police are asking anyone who may have witnessed the crash to call them at 631-727-4500. All calls will be kept confidential, police said.