By Markham Heid
The Washington Examiner
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Alexandria Fire Department officials are asking city leaders for cash to pay for more emergency response vehicles and medics.
“Our system is maxed out,” said Alexandria Fire Chief Adam Thiel, whose department is responsible for the city’s emergency response services.
The fire department is asking the City Council for about $900,000 to pay for two new vehicles and five additional medics. Those resources would allow the fire department to operate one additional medic unit during peak emergency call hours.
In 2009, fire department records show Alexandria’s five existing medic units responded to just 62 percent of emergency calls within the six-minute time frame prescribed by the National Fire Protection Agency.
Victims of cardiac arrest can start to suffer permanent brain damage after six minutes, Thiel said, and the city’s fire department has had to lean on neighboring jurisdictions for support.
Fairfax and Arlington County medic units last year responded to about 10 percent of Alexandria’s 13,127 emergency medical services calls, according to a memorandum published by the city manager’s office.
“We run out of medic units in the city of Alexandria by about noon every day, on average, which means we’re looking for mutual aid units to fulfill those obligations for service,” Thiel said.
The mutual aid program is a partnership among Alexandria, Arlington and Fairfax that ensures all available emergency medic units can respond to calls as quickly as possible.
“The whole point of mutual aid is that everyone’s got everyone’s back,” said City Councilman Rob Krupicka. “But we’ve been using a little bit more than we’ve been giving. It doesn’t make us a very good regional partner, and it’s just not a sustainable model.”
Thiel could not say how many calls Alexandria emergency units responded to in other jurisdictions, but fire department representatives in Fairfax and Arlington said the relationship was reciprocal.
“They do utilize us, but we also utilize them,” said Christine Louder, deputy chief of Emergency Medical Services for Fairfax County.
Krupicka said the City Council would discuss the fire department’s funding request in April.
Copyright 2010 ProQuest Information and Learning