Photo: MattGush / iStock / Getty Images
BOSTON (State House News Service) - When Kelli Gillen Forbes pulled a fire box for her aunt who had suffered a stroke in Charlestown in May, it took close to an hour for an ambulance to arrive.
"It was a stroke; everybody knows time is of the essence in treatment. Luckily she is making great recovery, but -- we have an ambulance in Charlestown. And we know that that ambulance was at that time in the South End," Gillen Forbes said at a Boston City Council hearing Wednesday.
"We're looking at adding, I think, 35,000 people in Charlestown and we can't get services for the people that we have already," she continued.
Councilors Gabriella Coletta, who represents Charlestown, and Erin Murphy called for Wednesday's hearing on increasing emergency services in tandem with population growth after previously hearing Gillen Forbes' story.
The Boston neighborhood has only a single ambulance and is somewhat cut off from other city emergency services due to its location and the few roads onto the peninsula, Coletta said.
She said the fire department arrived at the May incident within three minutes and provided lifesaving care for Gillen Forbes' aunt, but that the ambulance dedicated to Charlestown was at Massachusetts General Hospital responding to another call when the emergency happened.
"And I've heard from other residents that there are increased wait times for ambulance service too," Coletta told the News Service. "And in a moment like that, where someone's health is on the line, their life is on the line, you need to have an immediate response."
Fire Commissioner and Chief of the Boston Fire Department Paul Burke told councilors Wednesday that the city needs additional firehouses in its three most isolated neighborhoods -- Charlestown, East Boston and Brighton, where it is difficult to get services quickly to those in need.
Burke added that Brighton, specifically, needs a technical specialty facility. About six months ago, when a girl in the neighborhood was run over by a car and stuck under the vehicle, he said, a technical rescue company had to come from downtown Boston using the Massachusetts Turnpike to get to the scene.
The call to expand emergency response services comes at a time when city officials are aiming to grow Boston's population.
"Our vision is for Boston to sustainably reach our peak population of 800,000 residents with the housing and schools, parks and public transit to support that growth," Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said in January at her State of the City address, referring to the city's historic peak population from around 1950.
Boston's population climbed by about 50,000 people between 2010 and 2020 from 617,594 to 675,632, according to census data, though recent estimates show about 25,000 of those residents may have dropped off between April 2020 and July 2022, when the census estimated there were 650,706 city residents.
Nicholas Mutter, a paramedic with Boston EMS and secretary of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, said "in a perfect world," the city would double the amount of ambulances it currently has.
Boston currently has 21 basic life support emergency vehicles and five advanced life support ambulances, which have a paramedic and emergency medical technician onboard, Coletta said.
"This is a critical matter. It impacts people citywide every single day," Mutter said. "I know the initial request for this meeting focuses on an incident that happened in Charlestown, but these incidents pop up throughout the city, several times a day."
Written By Sam Drysdale/SHNS
Follow WBZ NewsRadio: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | iHeartmedia App | TikTok