Rescue squad

A rescue squad is an organization that provides emergency medical care to both trauma and medical patients at either the basic life support or advanced life support levels. The staff of such agencies can possess any number of certifications including first responder, emergency medical technician, and paramedic. Typically, the term rescue squad is synonymous with first aid squad, emergency squad, safety squad, ambulance squad, ambulance corps., and EMS. However, the term "rescue squad" can also be associated with a fire department rescue team or other type of fire-related function.

Typically, a rescue squad has equipment such as ambulances, light and heavy-duty rescue vehicles, such as squad trucks or crash-trucks, and possibly boats.

Initially, rescue squads performed both medical services and what are now considered technical rescue operations. Such operations include, but are not limited to: confined space rescue, cave rescue, vehicle extrication, search and rescue, rope rescue, building collapse, underwater dive rescue, and swiftwater rescue. Advancements in technology have led to the occurrence of fewer fires, and have thus caused many fire departments, both paid and volunteer, to incorporate both EMS and technical rescue operations into their role. As a result, many rescue squads that used to function as "true rescue squads" have recently begun to provide only basic EMS ambulance services or have dissolved completely. However, many rescue squads still maintain and perform their original and historical functions of both emergency medical services and rescue operations, like those listed above.