PITTSBURGH, PA (PTTP) – The Freedom House Ambulance Service was founded in 1967 in
the Hill’s District in Pittsburgh, PA. This was the first EMS service and it was staffed with black
men and women paramedics that were well trained. This group developed the program that was
used all over the United States and still is in use today.
John Moon, Former Pittsburgh EMS Assistant Chief and member of Freedom House Ambulance
Service, described this job as “his calling.” He was persistent in getting this job after he watched
two Freedom House members come into the hospital he then worked at and he said that they
“commanded the attention of that room.” After all of this training and exams he finally got his
certificate and the uniform he had dreamed of. The training was intense, they went everywhere to
learn everything, and then took that training and went into people’s houses and applied it. He was
the first person in the US to do a trachea intubation outside of a hospital.
He saw a problem with the program because it lacked diversity and he wanted to open up this
career path to people that were unaware of it and make it known that it is something they could
do. He ended up designing the first diversity recruitment program for the Pittsburgh EMS. For as
long as he was there, this was the normal way to hire. The class had to be diverse. He would go
out into the community and recruit people that had no idea what a paramedic or EMT even was.
He trained them, paid for their schooling, and promised them a job after they were done.
There is a new training program being created called Freedom House EMT Training in honor of
the original program. Moon recalls that after he left things went almost back to the way they
were before and so he says it “…makes this training program precious…” He can not imagine a
world with no EMS system. “That’s one of my proudest accomplishments is that…I was a part of
an organization that created a system that’s emulated across the country if not the world.”
There is a tribute during the Black History month celebration in the City-County Building’s
grand lobby from February 1-29 that includes pictures, equipment and more to shine light on the
nation’s first paramedics. For more information, check out
https://pittsburghpa.gov/press-releases/press-releases.html?id=6364