N.Y. Mayor, Firefighters Disagree Over Ambulance Response Times

Oct. 05--LOCKPORT -- Mayor Anne E. McCaffrey said last week that response times from Twin City Ambulance crews have averaged in the range of five to six minutes since Lockport privatized the service Sept. 15.

City firefighters, who had provided the city's ambulance coverage for the past 40 years, pointed to a 13-minute response time last week as evidence that Twin City isn't always on the ball. McCaffrey said that incident wasn't typical.

McCaffrey told the Common Council last week that since Sept. 15, Twin City has averaged 4 minutes and 55 seconds to arrive as a "hot" advanced life support call, and 5:21 for a "cold" advanced life support call.

The mayor said a hot call is one in which the ambulance uses its lights and siren, and is based on the severity of the situation as reported to a dispatcher.

The average response time is 5:10 for a "hot" basic life support call, and 6:25 for a cold basic call.

At one point on Sept. 26, McCaffrey told the aldermen, there was a rash of calls, and at one time, Twin City had five ambulances in Lockport.

"That never could have happened before," she said. The Fire Department had two ambulances, and when those were unavailable mutual aid was summoned from volunteer fire companies.

Firefighter James Scapelliti, who addressed the Council, told the aldermen of a call in the city's north end where it took 13:14 for a Twin City ambulance to arrive. There was apparently difficulty in locating a house number during that call, but Scapelliti said the main factor was that the ambulance was called from the intersection of Transit and Maple roads in Amherst.

"In 13 minutes, there's a lot of advanced procedures that can be done," Scapelliti said.

Kevin W. Pratt, president of the Lockport Professional Fire Fighters Association, observed when that news was released that the prime vacation season is over, too, meaning the demand for substitutes in a platoon is far less than it was during the summer.

The city spent more than $100,000 over its budget for fire overtime for the entire year before the ambulance and minimum staffing changes.

Union spokesmen also questioned the cost of the city ambulance service. McCaffrey had given a figure of $1 million, and others had claimed $1.2 million.

Firefighter Kevin Watier, union secretary-treasurer, said the $1.2 million figure was derived by calculating the cost of three firefighters per shift for a year, since three firefighters usually went on a rescue call.

But as Watier pointed out, firefighters didn't spend an entire work shift on the ambulances. Pratt said a city document circulated by Deputy Corporation Counsel David E. Blackley estimated the real cost at $395,000 to $425,000, and Watier claimed it was about 50 percent lower than that.

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