The District of Columbia fire and emergency fleet, which has in recent months been under investigation for its emergency vehicle availability and the state of its aging fleet, had two ambulances catch on fire on August 13.
The DC Fire Fighters Association, Local 36, posted a photo on Twitter showing an ambulance on fire while on an emergency call. The same day, another ambulance caught on fire in an emergency room parking lot, the association posted. This fire was in the engine compartment. On August 8, an ambulance that customarily accompanies a presidential motorcade ran out of gasoline because its fuel gage was broken, according to the Washington Times.
The L36 association issued releases criticizing officials who they say “have done little to fix a quickly deteriorating fleet.” In an August 14 release, the group showed “what fire fighters are forced to try to work with on a daily basis,” by posting a picture of a parking sign jammed into a vehicle motor as a “make shift heat shield.”
In July, the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department (DCFEMS) announced it had hired BDA Global to perform an audit that will examine the department’s current fleet capacity and management practices.
