San Luis Fire Department’s newest addition

The San Luis Fire Department (SLFD) is getting a new ambulance added to its fleet in January, which means better response times to emergencies in the community.

SLFD said on September 11 the chief of the department presented the council with a proposition of $167,000 to purchase an ambulance.

This ambulance will be the fifth one that the station owns.

On October 1, SLFD will have three ambulances ready to go 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for any emergency. There will also be an additional ambulance on stand-by in case any of the other ambulances have any mechanical issues.

In January the fire department will add its additional ambulance, making it the station’s fifth ambulance.

The addition of these ambulances helps with response rates because normally if the department receives many back-to-back calls, they have to call on Somerton Fire Department for assistance. This response time can take up to 30 minutes.

The SLFD said that with a growing community they hope they can eventually expand as well into another station East of San Luis, that way the response time for them doesn’t exceed over 8 minutes.

Residents on the East side of town are the farthest from the fire station which is why the response time is longer than others in the city.