In my career, caring for elderly people in Napa over the years, there was one call many begged me not to make in times of duress: “911.” It was the call I knew had to make if there was a fall ...

There is an asterisk: Fire trucks can’t accommodate patients who need to be safely shuttled to the hospital. Only a suitably equipped vehicle—an ambulance—can do that.

OXFORD — Oxford’s fire department is bracing for delays with high price tags as it seeks to replace its aging Engine 5 as well as a 2018 ambulance that was totaled in a Route 26 crash last June.