SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – A recent study revealed that the Santa Fe Fire Department is in need of more ambulances. The city hired an out-of-state company to gather information from the past few years, and the results showed that the department is lacking in efficiency when it comes to available units.
With the increase in the amount of calls the department is receiving, they would need two more ambulances in order to keep up. When the department has to rely on out-of-district units, the response time is typically nine minutes, whereas the response time of an in-district unit is typically under six minutes; those few minutes can make a huge difference when it comes to saving lives.
“We do have those instances where we are down to one ambulance, we are down to zero ambulances. As soon as they get to the hospital, they get back in service and go to the next calls. So it happens regularly that we’re down to no ambulances throughout the day,” says Santa Fe Fire Chief Brian Moya.
The department is trying to raise its number of ambulances from seven to nine; with that change, the fire department would need to hire 24 more people. The budget proposal is set to be held in front of the City Council by January.
