Arlington Fire Rescue proposes rescue consolidation and a daytime transport unit to ease EMS strain

Fire Chief Pavlitz and Assistant Chief Jason Jenkins told the board that Arlington Fire Rescue has made progress on recruitment and retention but faces persistent EMS demand: about 70% of calls remain EMS‑related and several transport units are operating at high unit‑hour utilization. The department proposed consolidating two rescue companies (Station 2 and Station 9) into a single, centrally based heavy rescue with increased staffing on the remaining rescue and adding a daytime peak transport unit to respond during highest demand hours.

Chief Jenkins cautioned that rescue and special‑operations units are specialized resources that will never show the same utilization percentages as transport units because they run infrequently but handle complex incidents when needed. The proposal aims to improve overall unit‑hour utilization and reduce overtime while preserving core hazmat and technical rescue capabilities; the presentation acknowledged increased strain in some geographic pockets and potential changes to response time coverage in limited areas.

Fire leaders said recent additional recruit classes and retention efforts have reduced overtime and that the department expects to reach full staffing by late spring after the current recruit class graduates. They also described mobile integrated health and community risk reduction efforts that seek to prevent avoidable 911 calls by connecting frequent users to services, which department medical staff argued is an effective way to lower transport demand over time.

Board members asked for benchmarking, incident‑type detail and follow‑up analysis on rescue utilization and the likely coverage effects of consolidation. Fire leadership agreed to provide comparative data and metrics the board can use to evaluate risk and savings.