Almost a year into taking over emergency medical services, Wilmington Fire Department could expand its team.
Carney presented his budget address last week. It included three public safety initiatives. If passed as is, the budget makes room for a Director of Community Safety, mobile showers for the unhoused community at Christina Park and 12 new EMS personnel.
The Wilmington Fire Department took on emergency medical services last April. Chief John Looney says Carney and his staff have been supportive of the transition, which resulted in the need for more emergency staff.
“Those additional firefighters were needed so we could staff or even out our four platoon system,” Looney said. “So that way, it helps greatly with our staffing of the ambulances. We've been providing a quality service since our inception in June, and our response times are well above the benchmarks standards.”
The benchmark response time for low or medium calls is 8 minutes 90% of the time. Looney said Wilmington’s units average about five minutes and 20 seconds. He said he expects response times to remain consistent with new staff.
The Department is in the middle of filling 10 vacant firefighter positions. Once those are filled and the budget is approved by City Council, Looney said he will move to filling 12 more positions.
“This is a very important step to bring on this additional personnel because it helps with [... the] demanding positions,” Looney said. “I mean, we have, since June, handled over 14 thousand emergency ambulance incidents.”
Looney added 12 more people on the shift rotation helps with recruitment, retention and maintaining the physical and mental wellbeing of EMS workers.
Because the Department is already hiring firefighters, Looney said his team is in a good position to recruit 12 more EMS personnel in the near future.
City Council’s first budget hearing is set for April 1.
