Doug Trovdi, speaking for the Anchorage Fire Department, told the Assembly Public Health and Safety Committee that a layered map of station locations, modeled driving times and 2024 incident points shows coverage gaps in parts of the Anchorage bowl. "There are multiple layers ... the fire stations are located with the goal of getting 4 personnel on scene to every critical emergency within 4 minutes, 90% of the time," Trovdi said while walking members through green (within 4 minutes), blue (>4 to 8 minutes) and red (>8 to 10 minutes) bands on the map (SEG 061'SEG 071, SEG 075'SEG 086).

Trovdi emphasized the distinction between driving-time bands and measured response times: the colored bands represent modeled driving time from station locations, not the actual response-time metric that can be affected by unit availability. "Response time does not equal driving time," he said, noting that an arrival might meet a driving-time threshold but fail the four-person-in-four-minutes test if a second unit did not arrive (SEG 147'SEG 156).

Using 2024 incident dots overlaid on the map, Trovdi identified two substantial clusters where the department "weren't able to reach within our response time" (SEG 119'SEG 123). He said the west-of-Bicentennial-Park area and a corridor between Stations 12 and 7 contain large blue bands and many calls, driven by population and housing growth in those neighborhoods (SEG 105'SEG 116). To improve coverage, he recommended relocating Station 12 slightly east and adding a single new station to the west rather than building two entirely new stations: "If we were to relocate station 12 to the East and have a new station to the West ... we could have 1 new fire station and a much better server for the people within the whole" (SEG 292'SEG 298).

Assembly members pressed for data sources and timeline context. Trovdi said the map shows calendar-year 2024 incidents and driving-time modeling that accounts for road speeds and impediments; he reviewed recent station moves (Station 9, Station 3, Station 1) and said the municipality has had a net gain of one station in recent decades (SEG 188'SEG 205).

The department also presented call-volume trends from 2014 to 2024 showing large increases across several categories: basic life support (BLS) calls, mobile crisis team responses (program began 2021) and advanced life support (ALS) calls. Trovdi characterized the pattern as a shift toward more low-acuity use of 911 and cited contributing factors including reliance on 911 for primary care and gaps in insurance and community care (SEG 217'SEG 236, SEG 319'SEG 333).

What's next: Trovdi'and members discussed the station-relocation option and more detailed coverage analysis; no formal motion or funding request was recorded in the meeting transcript.