TAMPA, Fla. — As the city of Tampa grows, Tampa Fire Rescue says so have their calls for service.
And according to the city's Fire Chief, Barbara Tripp, they're seeing a rise in a very specific kind of call.
"We ran over 91,000 calls last year. 80,000 was medical," she said.
But at a recent community forum, Tripp revealed that several stations don't have the proper rigs to take those calls.
"I need additional transport units to the hospital to accommodate all of the medical calls that we're getting," she said.
In addition to adding those rigs, the chief told folks that moving forward, Tampa Fire Rescue is focused on rebuilding or upgrading existing stations that are past their prime.
She said they're also working to revamp their current technology to make it easier to dispatch crews and get them to emergencies faster.
This plan comes after numerous calls from the Tampa Fire Union President and some elected officials for new fire stations.
"If we do not put a station in this budget or a couple of stations, we're going to further move ourselves behind," said Tampa Fire Union President Nick Stocco in August.
However, in the past, Tripp told ABC Action News that she wanted to collect data first and focus on upgrading existing systems.
"So, it's always room to grow, but one of the things that this administration is looking to do is actually see what the problem is. And what I mean by that is to see what the call volume is. Because you can put a fire station on a corner, but is it going to serve the purpose of the community," she said in September.
And the chief held true to that belief at the forum, where she revealed that the city currently has its hands full with trying to order enough rigs while dealing with pandemic-related backlogs.
"We have a lot of units that's on order. We have not received them, and it's been like two years," she said.
