Bexar County ESD No. 2 to provide its own medical transportation services

Officials believe new units could shave minutes off response times

BEXAR COUNTY, Texas – Bexar County Emergency Services District No. 2 Fire Department will now provide its own medical transportation services.

“We’ve been around starting as a volunteer fire department in the ’70s and worked our way to a full paid department and adding the implementation (emergency medical services) is a really great milestone for us,” said Walter Ball, division chief of EMS and communication for Bexar County ESD No. 2.

Ball said the department used to contract a private ambulance company, but it has now purchased its own vehicles.

“Roughly from Highway 90 to Alamo Ranch-Culebra area, we currently have three ambulances in that jurisdiction covering three stations. In the next 18 months, we will add two stations and add five more ambulances to the area,” Ball said.

Officials with the department said they think the new EMS units paid for by tax dollars will be a huge benefit to residents of Bexar County.

Last year, the Bexar County ESD No. 2 Fire Department responded to 10,000 calls and about 3,600 of those calls required EMS transportation, according to Ball.

Officials believe these new units could shave minutes off response times.

“It allows us to improve the response time of our citizens and put a lot more ambulances in the 60-square-mile area we service,” Ball said.

Ball said there will be trained firefighters and paramedics or firefighter emergency medical technicians in the ambulances.

https://bc2fd.org/