“an indictment of the management and maintenance of our Fire and Emergency Medical Services fleet – of our fire trucks and ambulances”

Photo by PoPville flickr user ep_jhu

From Council Member Tommy Wells:

“Councilmember Tommy Wells, Chair of the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, responded to the Fleet Audit Report released by the District’s Fire and Emergency Medical Services (FEMS). Wells will hold an oversight hearing on DC’s FEMS next week, on Wednesday, December 4th.

Click here FEMS Apparatus Division – Audit and Assessment Report  for a copy of the FEMS Fleet Audit and Assessment Report. Councilmember Wells’ response follows:

“This audit report is an indictment of the management and maintenance of our Fire and Emergency Medical Services fleet – of our fire trucks and ambulances. The audit shows that there is not an accountable system to ensure that our fleet is repaired, accounted for and replaced.

“The Administration has recently procured new ambulances, but this report does not give me confidence that they have a system to manage and maintain the new or old vehicles, or to know when they will need to buy more.

“The audit report shows that it is taking DC 20 times longer to repair vehicles in our fleet than it does for similar jurisdictions and cities across the country. There are only 369 vehicles in the Fire and Emergency Medical Services fleet, while MPD has over 1600 vehicles that they have been able to track and maintain in a timely and cost efficient manner. I would like to see FEMS be able to do the same.

“This is about public safety and accountability. The vehicles and equipment are very expensive and are paid for by the tax dollars of District residents. Our ambulances and fire trucks are critically important to public safety and need to be in the best repair possible so they can quickly get to residents in all parts of the city.

“The audit provides an oversight baseline to ensure that the Administration is replacing, repairing and maintaining the equipment in a responsible way for the citizens of DC. The city needs a radical restructuring in the way they manage the fleet, and I look forward to hearing the Administration’s plans and ideas at my oversight hearing next week.”