San Diego County's two largest cities have a new agreement to speed up firefighting and medical-crew response times. San Diego and Chula Vista will combine their emergency call centers. KPBS reporter Andrew Phelps has details.
Starting next month, fire dispatchers in San Diego will also field calls from Chula Vista.
Chula Vista will pay San Diego more than half-a-million dollars for the job. Officials say Chula Vista still saves $700,000 by shedding the overhead of its own call center.
San Diego Fire Chief Tracy Jarman says response times would improve in both cities. She says the current setup is problematic.
Jarman: So if I have an incident in the city of San Diego along the border, and I needed help from the Chula Vista engine company, I would have to relay the information over a phone line to a dispatcher to enter into their computer dispatcher, and that's where we would lose the five to six minutes.
That's a long delay, considering response time is measured in seconds.
Andrew Phelps, KPBS News.
