Juneau adds third ambulance crew

An ambulance and Juneau police officer at the Driftwood Hotel, Dec. 16, 2016. (Photo by David Purdy/KTOO)
An ambulance and Juneau police officer at the Driftwood Hotel on Dec. 16, 2016. (Photo by David Purdy/KTOO)

Capital City Fire/Rescue will be adding a third ambulance crew. That’s following an extra $361,000 approved by the Juneau Assembly.

Travis Wolfe, head of the local firefighters union, praised Monday night’s action. But he reiterated the union’s position that the community needs an ambulance crew staffed around the clock.

“This ordinance is going to get us that first step that we absolutely need and that’s getting that ambulance on the road 24 hours a day,” Wolfe said.

Capital City Fire/Rescue receives an average of 14 calls each day, most for emergency medical care. A third-party hired by the city found that 911 calls have increased by about 40 percent over the past eight years.

This widens a city budget gap. In the last budget adopted by the Assembly, general government expenditures drew $2.6 million from reserves.

Correction: A sentence has been deleted that had misstated the particular staffing levels the money would cover as well as references to the particular shifts.

Jacob Resneck, CoastAlaska

Jacob Resneck is CoastAlaska's regional news director based in Juneau. CoastAlaska is our partner in Southeast Alaska. KTOO collaborates with partners across the state to cover important news and to share stories with our audiences.

Sign up for The Signal

Top Alaska stories delivered to your inbox every week

Site notifications
Update notification options
Subscribe to notifications