Sylmar Fire Station to Get 1st Paramedic Ambulance

The Los Angeles City Fire Commission approved Thursday the deployment of the first paramedic rescue ambulance at the Sylmar fire station after a hearing in which officials said that paramedic response time in the area was unacceptable and “unequivocally too long.”

Sylmar Fire Station 91 on Polk Street will have a rescue ambulance and two paramedics beginning April 1. Local residents have long complained about the lack of coverage in the area.

The $50,000 move will mean that two paramedics that had been destined for the Mission Hills Fire Station will go to Sylmar. Mission Hills would get two emergency medical technicians instead. The change requires City Council approval. East Valley Councilman Howard Finn assured the fire commission that he would fight for its approval.

Sylmar’s emergency medical calls are now handled by fire stations in Mission Hills and Pacoima.

A recent Fire Department study of response time in Sylmar showed that it takes seven minutes on the average for a rescue ambulance to reach its destination. In the northern reaches of Sylmar, response time can be as long as 13 to 15 minutes, the study stated.

The average paramedic response time in the rest of the Valley is five minutes, and in metropolitan Los Angeles it is 4.8 minutes, said Dr. Gregory L. Palmer, medical director for the Fire Department’s Bureau of Emergency Medical Services.

In addressing the fire commission, Finn said a housing construction boom in Sylmar, the addition of mobile-home parks where many senior citizens live and the growing number of businesses point to the need for paramedic service.