- February 5, 2025
-
-
Loading
Loading
In all his years of fire department experience, Port Orange Fire Chief Ken Fustin said he's never seen an ambulance shortage quite like Volusia County's.
The neighboring cities of Ponce Inlet, South Daytona, New Smyrna Beach and Edgewater have bought ambulances for themselves to alleviate the lack of EVAC transport services available, and the city of Port Orange has been thinking for the past two years about following in their footsteps. It's something that Fustin, who came from a fire-based EMS system in Springfield, Illinois, has been working toward.
“There just is not enough resources available for the county," Fustin said. "So I want to try to make sure that our citizens have the opportunity to be transported by the firefighters that work in the very city that they live in.”
Should the city choose to buy an ambulance and implement it via the county's Peak Load Utilization System program — which has the potential to decrease response times within Port Orange if EVAC transport is unavailable — a used fully-equipped ambulance would cost the municipality about $150,000.
“Is there a cost to it?" Fustin said. "Absolutely. There’s a cost to everything.”
New ambulances run anywhere between $200,000-$250,000, Fustin said. It's no different than hiring police officers, building parks or providing services to the citizens, and he said it would help provide a greater level of comfort to Port Orange residents.
“I think the opportunity to have one housed right here in Port Orange will allow us to kind of have that security blanket," Fustin said. "Right now we have no guarantees of having a dedicated county-based ambulance here in Port Orange."
An ambulance is still a wish-list item for the city, but it has made it through two budget meetings, Fustin said. As one of the city's priorities is public safety, the Fire Department has been trying to help the City Council see how important having its own mode of fire-based transport is.
Thomas Weber, national director of the International Organization for Standardization's Community Hazard Mitigation Services, pointed out a single county along Florida's east coast that does not have a fire-based EMS service.
Volusia County.
“Why is Volusia different than the entire east coast in the state of Florida — from Key West to Jacksonville?" Weber said. "They can’t be doing it wrong and we’re doing it right.”
Fustin echoed the same sentiment as Weber, who is also a former Port Orange fire chief. He served the city from 2003 to 2011.
“To me, that speaks volumes," Fustin said. "We’re not, in my opinion, doing it right. We need to be more in line with what all of our neighbors do.”
The bottom line according to Weber? Volusia County is 20 years or so behind the rest of the state. Port Orange purchasing an ambulance would be a "baby step" in the right direction he said.
Jason Lademann, president of the Volusia County EMS union, being non-fire based is a positive factor in a county of multiple fire departments.
"For EVAC, political boundaries are not an issue, the heart attack in the city limits is no more or less important than the heart attack that occurs in unincorporated areas," Lademann wrote in an email. "However, with thirteen fire departments, that means thirteen different sets of policies, levels of service and political boundaries that often interfere with sending the closest unit to a 911 call."
He added that EVAC's 12-hour shift schedule allows paramedics and EMTs to be well-rested when on duty — a contrast to the fire department's 24-hour staffing model that can be taxing on the human body.
There is a financial impact to the community as well, Weber said. In his current position, he is part of a statewide grading system that measures how well these departments are performing. Those integrated with EMS services do better overall because they have more staffing, Weber said.
The better the county's score, the lower insurance premiums are for residents, he said.
"Volusia County is not taking advantage of that," Weber said.
If Port Orange were to buy an ambulance though, Lademann said the residents would be faced with a double-taxation issue as they already pay for EMS in their county property taxes.
With a new county manager soon to take office in Volusia County, Fustin said now is the time to talk about mergers within municipal fire departments.
"We have a very fractured level of service here," Fustin said. "We’re not the example. We are the exception to the rule, as far as
providing a good level of service.”
Weber said when he was the fire chief in Port Orange, the city bought an ambulance. However, at that time, the county wouldn't let the fire department run it and the PLUS program didn't exist. It was sold shortly after his retirement.
He said officials should now take a look at Seminole County, which has county-run ambulances, but also lets every city have one.
“It’s the perfect model for us to transition to here in Volusia," Weber said. "Volusia County can keep it for their area and their fire service, and sooner or later, they’ll get smart and incorporate EVAC into their fire department.”
Lademann is not sure sure that's the way to go.
"EVAC is a consolidated county-wide agency, and the EMS system across Volusia County should not be fragmented," Lademann wrote. "In 2013, the over 500,000 residents of Volusia County benefitted when we consolidated four different 911 dispatch centers into one. It wouldn’t make sense to break up an already consolidated EMS system, we would be moving backwards."
The answer to the problem, he said, lies with adding staffing to EVAC. Lademann said the PLUS program was designed as an "emergency backup plan" to use in case call volume spikes. The county's responsibility "should not be imposed upon individual cities," he added.
For now though, Fustin and the Port Orange Fire Department are sticking to their strategy for ambulance transports: "crawl, walk, run."
The department is looking to start slow.
And in the same way people would seldom think to give up their car insurance, Fustin said, people view the fire departments as an insurance policy.
“That is the basic philosophy of having a fire department," Fustin said. "We’re there in case you need us. We’re not a profit center. We’re not a profitable business.”
