An ambulance and crew from the Cooperstown emergency medical squad was scheduled to travel to New York City to assist workers with rescue and clean-up efforts at the site of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center last week.

The Cooperstown crew will be going with similar ones from Oneonta and Unadilla, according to Dave Lincoln, assistant coordinator of emergency services for Otsego County.

Crews hadn't been told what jobs they would be doing in Manhattan yet, Lincoln said.

"We will be under control of the fire department of New York," he said. "As far as I know, we will just be helping them out."

Lincoln said he is unsure if local emergency workers will be working directly in the rubble.

"That's a possibility," he said. "That's all it is right now."

The state's Fire Mutual Aid System was activated shortly after the attacks, and the state Health Department requested emergency medical squads to come to the city earlier this week, Oneonta Fire Chief Robert Barnes said.

The state has been requesting 20 ambulances per day from different areas of the state go to the city, Lincoln said.

"We had to put a list of personnel and equipment together that we could send down," he said. "We found out Sunday that we would have to go."

Bassett Healthcare in Cooperstown and A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital in Oneonta have donated supplies, including face masks, bandages, irrigation fluids and goggles, Barnes and Lincoln said.

Local EMTs said Tuesday they were nervous but excited about being able to help.

"I'm a little apprehensive," Carrie Carney, an EMT-basic from Cooperstown, said. "I don't think I'll ever have a chance like this again. I want to help out."

Bob Satriano, an EMT-3 from Cooperstown, said he hopes the group isn't assigned to ground zero, pulling victims from the rubble.

"I would if I had to, of course," he said. "I don't know what we're going to walk into."

Satriano, who used to work as an EMT in New York City, said he's been in contact with his former partner, who said the Manhattan scene is "pretty bad."

Barnes and Lincoln emphasized that local emergency care will not be adversely affected by the absent personnel.