A brave new world in emergency medicine traces its Connecticut origins to UConn Health in 1975, when 12 firefighters enrolled in the Northeast’s first paramedic training class this side of Pittsburgh.

Paramedicine was a new and largely unheard of concept at the time Greg Metcalf — then the public safety director at what was known as the UConn Health Center — proposed, advocated for, and ultimately won the support for bringing paramedics to the state, with an inaugural class of 12.

“Eight East Hartford firefighters and four UConn Firefighters — Capt. Dave Smith, Capt. Jerry Rio, Lt. Don Perreault, and firefighter Walt Rasmussen — bravely stepped forward to blaze a path for EMS in Connecticut that had never been attempted, let alone dreamed of, before,” said UConn Fire Capt. Anthony Ruggiero, himself a paramedic, at a UConn Fire Department ceremony to celebrate 50 years paramedic services in Connecticut. “Today we stand on the shoulders of these giants, pioneers of modern medicine in a world where paramedicine is now a household name.”

Perrault and Smith attended, each presented with a plaque and a proclamation from the Connecticut General Assembly to honor their service as Connecticut’s first paramedics. Rasmussen and Rio were unable to attend.

How many jobs can you talk about 50-something years later and have something like this? It’s unbelievable. — Dave Smith

Metcalf, who lives in Utah, flew in for the ceremony, also accepted a plaque, reluctantly, after Perrault told him, “Without you, none of this would have happened.”

“I would’ve said there’s no way we would have made it this far, that, quite honestly, if we made it to the next day, that was always a pleasant surprise,” Metcalf said when asked if he was told in 1975 he’d be attending a ceremony marking 50 years of paramedics in in the UConn Fire Department. “No, I never thought I’d be seeing you here at the 50^th.”

“I’m really grateful, I mean, I’m kind of amazed,” said Smith, who in 1971 was the first firefighter hired to the UConn Health Fire Department. “How many jobs can you talk about 50-something years later and have something like this? It’s unbelievable.”

Bill Perkins speaking at podium

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Retired UConn Health Fire Chief William Perkins (Photo by Coral Ruggiero)

Bob Howe speaking at podium

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Retired UConn Health Deputy Fire Chief Bob Howe (Photo by Coral Ruggiero)

Rich Kamin speaking at podium

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Dr. Rich Kamin is UConn Health’s EMS program director and also serves as medical director for the Connecticut Office of Emergency Medical Services. (Photo by Coral Ruggiero)

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Walt Rasmussen is one of four UConn Health firefighters who graduated from Connecticut's first class of paramedics, held at UConn Health in 1975. (Photo provided by Irene Engel).

UConn Health's original paramedic van, Rescue 1

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Rescue 1 was the UConn Health Fire Department's first paramedic vehicle. (Photo provided by the UConn Health Fire Department)

UConn Health Fire Department's Rescue vehicle

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Dave Smith, the first firefighter hired by UConn Health, tests the hose on Engine 1 in the mid-70s on what later would be paved as main road on campus. (Photo provided by Dave Smith)

paramedics demonstrating paramedic equipment in 1975

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UConn Health firefighters Don Perrault and Jerry Rio, two of Connecticut's first paramedics, demonstrate a defibrillator in 1975. At lower right is a telemetry unit that enabled communication with the emergency department so the paramedics could work under the direction of a physician in real time. (Photo provided by Dave Smith)

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Lt. Anthony Ruggiero leads a vehicle extrication exercise for emergency medicine residents May 2016, part of the UConn Health Fire Department's continuing mission of training and education. (Photo by Janine Gelineau)

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From left: Nurse supervisors Irene Engel and Cindy Shipps, pictured here in the UConn Health Fire Department's newly acquired Rescue 2 paramedic vehicle in 1979, helped familiarize emergency department nurses with paramedics by having the nurses go out on calls with them. (Photo submitted by Irene Engel)

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Members of the UConn Health Special Operations Unit traveled to New York City in a specially equipped vehicle and were assigned to provide medical support for the New York Urban Search and Rescue Team. They are from left to right: William Perkins, Carmine Centrella, John Kowalski, Dr. Robert Fuller, Greg Priest, Ben Sonstrom, and, kneeling, Daryl Byrne. Fuller at the time was chair of emergency medicine. The others were paramedics with the special tactical training. (File photo)

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Engine 1, the first UConn Health fire truck, was acquired in 1971. The original fire house, pictured in 1974, was little more than a garage bay to house that engine. (Photo submitted by Dave Smith)

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Dave Smith, the first firefighter hired by UConn Health, tests the hose on Engine 1 in the mid-70s on what later would be paved as main road on campus. (Photo provided by Dave Smith)

paramedics in lower Manhattan on 9/11

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The response team from UConn Health Center used their skills and training to assist search and rescue efforts after the attacks.

paramedics in lower Manhattan on 9/11

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A team of UConn Health tactical paramedics and an emergency medicine physician responded to lower Manhattan Sept. 11, 2001. (Photo courtesy of the UConn Health Fire Department)

Metcalf says there were growing pains and challenges with this new concept, but Smith, Rio, Rasmussen, and Perreault followed with a blind loyalty.

“This was not a job, it was something more, it was a calling, I think,” Perreault said. “And I think every one of us who decided to take up that call can walk away from their career later on and have a smile on your face and say, ‘I did the best I could.’”

It was a gathering of UConn firefighters, current and retired, most of them, paramedics, and other members of the emergency medicine community, including Peter Canning, paramedic and nurse who’s been UConn Health’s emergency medical services coordinator since 2008.

“All of us who have had the privilege to be EMS responders are grateful for the guidance we have received from our preceptors, guidance that they were given by their preceptors, and the ones who came before, guidance we ourselves have passed down to the ones who came after us,” Canning said. “We honor our original paramedics with a ceremony today, and with our actions every time we respond.”

Dr. Rob Fuller, who last year retired as UConn Health’s chair of emergency medicine, recalled driving to New York City with six UConn Health firefighter-paramedics to join the 9/11 response.

“I remember thinking, it requires a lot of trust and a lot of confidence in a team to respond to something like that, and we had that as a team. That was a pretty awesome and important moment for our group,” Fuller says. “The UConn medics were always motivated to be innovative, and they probably got that inheritance from the original team, they had this idea about innovation.”

The television drama “Emergency!” ran from 1972 to 1977 is largely credited with opening the nation’s eyes to paramedicine. It was a drama about two Los Angeles County paramedics of Squad 51 who worked with medical staff at fictional Rampart General Hospital. In a fitting coincidence, the role of Dr. Kelly Brackett, the hospital’s chief of emergency medicine, was played by an actor named Robert Fuller.

UConn Health’s first deputy fire chief, Bob Howe, recalled the days when paramedics were far from widely accepted in the medical community.

“I remember bringing a patient into the ER and getting yelled at by the nurse for the way we tied off an IV,” Howe said. “And then we took that same nurse out on a call with us one day, and we got done she said, ‘I’ll never say a bad word again about how you tie off an IV.’ And it was things like that; the education went both ways, and I’m just proud as anything that I was a part of it.”

Dr. Rich Kamin is UConn Health’s EMS program director and also serves as medical director for the Connecticut Office of Emergency Medical Services.

“The relationship, the opportunity, the privilege of being the medical director, a part of a service that pioneered prehospital care in the state and change it dramatically, was something that I’ve always been appreciative of,” Kamin said.

UConn Fire Chief Chris Renshaw tried to offer some perspective the paramedic program’s impact on the community.

“There are quite literally people who are living their lives right now specifically because of an idea turned into a reality, and practiced with such professionalism, that shaped an entire culture of emergency services across this state,” Renshaw said.

“I’m glad I did it,” Smith said.

Watch a video of the April 17, 2026, ceremony at UConn Health.

Read a three-part series on the origins of paramedics at UConn Health from 2016:

• The 1st Paramedics, Part 1: Origins
  
• The 1st Paramedics, Part 2: Evolution
• The 1st Paramedics, Part 3: A Legacy of Service and Education