The New York Post
NEW YORK — The Fire Department has booted the city’s volunteer ambulance companies from its emergency 911 system, The Post has learned. The volunteer ambulances “are no longer required,” a high-ranking EMS chief told dispatchers in an e-mail last month.
About 35 community-run corps of volunteer EMTs dot the city, mostly in Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island, staffing a fleet of about 50 ambulances. The volunteers respond to an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 emergency calls annually, said Ryan Gunning, head of the state volunteer ambulance association.
If it weren’t for us, patient wait times would often be much longer. We get called in when the FDNY doesn’t have an ambulance to send. This change comes at the patient’s expense,” said Alan Wolfe, president of the Forest Hills Volunteer Corps.
Full story: FDNY’s siren-ara to EMTs