DC First Responders Urge Mayor To Fix City's Ambulance Problem

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

In the midst of Washington’s second heat wave of the summer, unions representing the District of Columbia’s emergency medical technicians, paramedics, fire fighters and registered nurses last Friday urged Mayor Vincent Gray to ensure that the city’s ambulances are in working order and have operational air conditioners “in the interests of public health and safety,” reports National Nurses United. Last week, seven of the city’s Fire and Emergency Medical Service Department 25 basic life support ambulances—or 28 percent—were out of service.  Many ambulances suffered from dysfunctional air-conditioning systems, and one ambulance with no working a.c. was ordered back in service even though a Department of Health inspector ordered it off the road after finding the patients’ compartment was 107 degrees.  Another ambulance had rigged a makeshift box fan to try to cool the patient compartment. “It is simply unacceptable for patients in need of emergency care to either not have an ambulance to transport them when needed or to have to be transported in an ambulance without a functioning air-conditioner,” union leaders wrote in a letter to Mayor Gray. They urged the Mayor to “devote the resources necessary to maintain and improve [the city’s] fleet of emergency vehicles so they are always in proper working order,” as well as have a sufficient number of reserve emergency vehicles to use as back-up, and increase Department of Health inspections of emergency vehicles and ensure that FEMS is not allowed to countermand orders by health inspectors. - photo courtesy Beechwood Photography