STAR Flight part- ners with pediatric and neonatal spe- cialty transport teams from Austin area hospi- tals. They can transport pediatric and neonatal spe- cialty team members to out- lying hospitals in the Central Texas region, to assist in the care and
transport of sick or premature babies and children. The specialty transport teams are not employed by STAR Flight; they are employees of their respective hospitals. These crews have flight uniforms that they change into when they are called upon to do a transport. Once the patient has been stabilized, they, along with the neonatal or pediatric transport team members, are flown directly back to the hospital where specialized care can be continued. In this way, specialized Neonatal or Pediatric ICU-level care can begin upon arrival at the outlying facility and continued all the way to the NICU / PICU. The EC145 also has enough space to allow a parent or fam- ily member to travel with the child. When STAR Flight is called on by local
Specialty transport teams are not employed by STAR Flight; they are
employees of their respective hospitals. The crews have flight uniforms that they change into when they are called upon.
fire departments to assist firefighters on the ground with wild fires, they are able to assist in two different ways: (1) by pro- viding direct aerial fire suppression, and (2) by serving as an air attack coordinator that assists ground firefighters by provid- ing information about the fire such as di- rection of travel, hot spots, threatened structures, and areas that firefighters may need to address immediately. Direct aerial suppression is the most common service, and that is the primary job of STAR Flight 4 (SF4), a Bell UH-1H Huey that was re- cently added to the fleet as the primary fire attack helicopter. SF4 has a fixed Isolair belly tank that can hold up to 325 gallons of water, about three times the amount of
the EC145s’ 130-gallon Bambi buckets. The fixed tank offers safety advantages for use in urban environments and can hold fire retardant. By using a suction hose, the pilot can fill the tank from multiple water sources such as lakes, ponds, a fire apparatus, or using the STAR Flight pumpkins: 4,800-gallon transportable wa- ter tanks. SF4 can transport additional firefighters (hand crews), increasing ac- cess to wildfires or disasters in remote or difficult terrain. The Huey has also re- tained the use of a cargo hook. In the event there is a problem with the Isolair tank, they can still deploy a 350-gallon Bambi bucket. Many houses are located in dense,
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