Book rekindles tales of Nevada’s ambulance service
By Ed Koch, Las Vegas Sun
Paramedic Alan Tinney remembers pulling up to MGM Grand on that autumn day in 1980 and witnessing “a fireball coming out the side of the building” — the beginning of what would be the deadliest tragedy in Nevada history. Eighty-five people died in the blaze, and nearly 700 were injured.
Tinney would make three runs from MGM — now Bally’s — carrying seven to nine victims each time to emergency rooms. Along the way, he and his partner provided life-saving treatments for smoke inhalation to several patients.
The day’s efforts occurred just seven years after the birth of the nation’s modern Emergency Medical Services system that nurtured a new generation of professional, medically trained first responders.
Tinney is one of about 150 emergency responders, representing every Nevada county, to be profiled in the recently released book “Nevada EMS: A History of Emergency Medical Services in Nevada” written by retired Reno physician Elwood L. Schmidt.