To staff the new BLS ambulance, the fire department swore in their inaugural class of ambulance operators. The Arcadia community warmly welcomes Brendan Poli, Anthony Pullara-Padilla, Sebastian Padilla, Edward Sustayta, Kevin Yeh, Lawson Turrietta and Hugo Bonilla to their new transportation and medical care duties for the City.
The Arcadia Fire Department is excited to deploy a new Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulance, along with seven newly hired ambulance operators, to meet the community’s growing needs and ensure a timely response to medical incidents.
In 2023, approximately 70 percent of the total 6,100 calls for service involved emergency medical incidents requiring hospital transport. The Arcadia Fire Department responded to over 4,000 medical service calls in total. High call volumes, coupled with prolonged hospital bed wait times, resulted in unavailability of ambulances and paramedics during peak
hours, prompting reliance on neighboring agencies to meet demand. The new BLS ambulance is now responsible for transporting lower acuity medical patients during peak hours, reserving the advanced life support ambulances and paramedics to respond to incidents needing a higher level of medical care.
“The implementation of this new program will improve services to our community, alleviating potential long response times,” said Chen Suen, Fire Chief. “When time matters for patient outcome, every minute saved is crucial. The Basic Life Support Ambulance program will serve those in need while keeping vital paramedic resources available for more critical medical responses.”
To staff the new BLS ambulance, the fire department swore in their inaugural class of ambulance operators. The Arcadia community warmly welcomes Brendan Poli, Anthony Pullara-Padilla, Sebastian Padilla, Edward Sustayta, Kevin Yeh, Lawson Turrietta and Hugo Bonilla to their new transportation and medical care duties for the City.
The basic life support ambulance will initially be in service Monday through Friday during peak hours, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Arcadia’s basic life support ambulance will also serve as a secondary transport source for Monrovia and the Los Angeles County Fire Department when their medical transport services provider is unavailable.
In 2023, the Arcadia City Council approved spending $731,600 from the Equipment Replacement Fund to purchase the ambulance and its equipment as well as $136,800 annually for the operators.