ESCONDIDO — The Escondido City Council has agreed to the city fire department’s request to deploy a sixth ambulance beginning next spring.
The council voted 4-0 on Dec. 10 to approve the purchase and staffing of an additional ambulance, with Mayor Dane White absent.
The decision follows a Standards of Cover study completed in June by consultant AP Triton, which found the city needs an additional ambulance to more effectively handle overlapping calls for service, improve response times and meet growing demand for emergency services.
Currently, the city operates five ambulances across its seven fire stations, providing coverage for more than 148,000 residents, along with visitors, employees, and travelers using Interstate 15 and state Route 78. The ambulances are housed at fire stations 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7 and are staffed 24 hours a day with one firefighter/paramedic and one emergency medical technician.
The last time the city added an ambulance to the fire department’s fleet was in 2015. Since then, call volume has increased from approximately 11,000 to nearly 15,000 in 2025. Demand is expected to continue rising, with a projected 40% increase by 2034.
Three of Escondido’s ambulances have the highest unit-hour utilization in the region, a measure that accounts for the time emergency resources are assigned to incidents and unavailable to respond to other calls. Those units operate out of fire stations 1, 2, and 7, all located in the city’s urban core.
According to Deputy Fire Chief Tyler Batson, under current demand, there are at least 23 hours per month when none of the city’s ambulances are available.
“In the first five months of 2025, data has shown that all five ambulances were simultaneously assigned to an incident an average of 142 times per month, further revealing a high level of saturation,” Batson said. “This results in longer response times, delayed hospital transport times, higher risk to patient outcomes, and lost EMS system cost recovery.”
While the city receives mutual aid from nearby jurisdictions through the North County Dispatch Joint Powers Authority, officials said relying on that approach is unsustainable. The city stands to lose approximately $1 million annually due to neighboring cities transporting patients to Escondido, which occurs an average of 3 times per day, or 88 times per month.
“Mutual aid agreements are meant to supplement, not substitute core services,” Batson said.
The fire department also explored alternatives, including peak-hour staffing of a part-time unit, which would not meet current demand, and delaying implementation, which would further degrade emergency service levels.
The new ambulance will cost $603,000 to purchase, with an expected annual operating cost of $1.48 million to employ three firefighters/paramedics and three emergency medical technicians, and to cover expenses including equipment, supplies, training, and repairs. Officials said the ambulance would recover approximately $1 million of those costs annually through transport revenue.
The purchase and operating costs will be funded through Measure I, the city’s voter-approved one-cent sales tax.
The fire department aims to have the sixth ambulance in service by April. Staff noted it takes approximately six months to hire and train new personnel.
Councilmember Christian Garcia said using Measure I funds for the ambulance aligns with the sales tax’s purpose of supporting public safety and city services.
Other council members agreed, including Judy Fitzgerald.
“It’s going to cost the city money, but what price value do you put on one life?” she asked.
Fitzgerald recalled two personal experiences with Escondido emergency services — one when her daughter, now 29, stopped breathing at 18 months old, and another five years ago when her father suffered a severe head injury.
“The fire engine and ambulance arrived within minutes,” she said.
Initially, the sixth ambulance will be housed and deployed from Fire Station 1 at 310 N. Quince Street, which is closest to the city’s highest concentration of emergency medical incidents. The station already houses one ambulance and was built to accommodate a second.
The ambulance could later be moved to the future Fire Station 8.
Fitzgerald encouraged the city to move forward with plans for the eighth fire station, which she said would further reduce response times. The station likely would be located south of fire stations 1 and 2.
