Fire chief urges new ambulance, station retrofit and tech to protect response times

Fire Chief Angel Ramirez told the City of San Luis budget retreat the department is under strain from rising call volumes and long transport times that place sustained pressure on ambulances and fire crews.

"We had 5,200 calls for service last year," Ramirez said, noting a sample showed 600 of roughly 1,000 near‑miss calls clustered south of Cesar Chavez Boulevard and west of 10th Avenue, with about 380 specifically at the port of entry. "If we don’t address coverage on the south side we risk slipping below the response‑time standards used for our CO renewal."

Ramirez asked council to consider several near‑term items: a training captain to centralize training and compliance work; three additional firefighters to provide scheduling flexibility so crews are not operating constantly on mandatory overtime; and a rapid‑response pickup‑style vehicle concept to handle many EMS calls faster and reduce wear on ladder rigs.

He also emphasized equipment lead times: new ambulances and some rescue tools can take 16–24 months or longer for delivery. Ramirez said the department’s newest ambulance already had about 98,000 miles, underscoring replacement urgency. He requested $150,000 to retrofit an existing north‑side building into a staffed Station 3 to shorten responses to the port area.

On alerting technology the department reported the current Zetron station‑alerting equipment is unsupported and at risk; staff recommended replacement with an IP‑based Phoenix G2 station alerting system (included in IT’s capital list) to ensure reliable dispatch alerts.

What’s next: Council asked fire staff to include their prioritized equipment and staffing requests in the May 6 work session tradeoffs. The chief emphasized the long procurement lead times and asked council to act early on ambulance and alerting system funding to avoid multi‑year waits.