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Ambulance To Be Stationed At Progress Village

Tribune file photo

This advanced life support ambulance, seen at Station 1 near Progress Village, had split time between Progress Village and Lutz.

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By MIKE SALINERO | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 22, 2009

TAMPA - The Progress Village-Palm River communities will soon get an ambulance and crew to provide around-the-clock advanced life support coverage.

Hillsborough County commissioners voted 6-1 Thursday to permanently station the ambulance and crew in the working-class neighborhoods east of Tampa. For 11 months, the ambulance had split time between Progress Village and Lutz.

Fire Rescue officials recommended the move after a three-month study that showed Progress Village received 594 calls for advanced life-support service compared with 246 in Lutz. The average number of advanced life-support calls for all department rescue units was 552.

Commissioner Jim Norman voted against the move, saying the fire department had "pitted one community against another." Norman also said the fire department had not done a thorough analysis of all fire stations to see which ones got the most or least calls for ALS service.

But Fire Chief Bill Nesmith said the Lutz volunteer station had the fewest calls for advanced life support of any station in the unincorporated areas of the county. Fire stations opened in the past several years on Chapman Road and in the Northdale community reduced the need for the ALS service at the Lutz fire station even more, Nesmith said.

The Lutz station will continue to have a full-time paramedic who can stabilize patients until an advanced life support ambulance arrives when needed from an outside station, Nesmith said.

Fire officials wanted to move the ambulance in October, citing a much higher number of ALS calls in Progress Village. The vehicle and crew had been splitting time between the two areas for the previous 11 months.

But after hearing protests from Lutz residents, county commissioners approved $178,000 in overtime to maintain ALS ambulances at both stations until this month. During that period, the fire department was to collect data to see whether a full-time ambulance was needed at the Lutz station.

Fire officials estimate that having ALS units at both stations would cost $1.2 million initially and $800,000 in annual personnel costs after that. Plus, the Lutz station has a full-time paramedic and a fire engine sufficient for the number of ALS calls in the area, said David Travis, chief of the rescue division.

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at msalinero@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-8303.

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