{"id":361117,"date":"2025-11-07T01:52:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T01:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/361117\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T01:52:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T01:52:19","slug":"houston-firefighters-say-eco-friendly-ambulances-cant-keep-up-with-citys-pace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/361117\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston firefighters say eco-friendly ambulances can\u2019t keep up with city\u2019s pace"},"content":{"rendered":"

Houston
\n<\/strong> \u2013 When a life is on the line, an ambulance is the first thing Houstonians expect to see. 2 Investigates<\/a> found the Houston Fire Department\u2019s environmentally friendly ambulances created issues that affected the department\u2019s ability to respond to calls. <\/p>\n

The HFD District Chief in Resource Management sent an email in August listing various consistent failures forcing ambulances off the streets that KPRC 2 News Mario Diaz uncovered. <\/p>\n

The head of the department, Chief Thomas Mu\u00f1oz telling us, \u201cThat\u2019s a huge concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

2 Investigates Mario Diaz talks with President of the Houston Fire Department Chief Thomas Mu\u00f1oz. (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

The email titled \u201cNew Frazer Ambulance Reliability Report\u201d states the departments \u201crecurring issues\u201d have resulted in \u201creducing fleet readiness and response capacity.\u201d <\/p>\n

The ambulances were approved and purchased under previous Mayor Sylvester Turner. His administration pushed for more environmentally friendly ambulances. In October of 2022, with no opposition, city council approved the $5.9 million taxpayer funded purchase of \u201c21 complete ambulance cab and chassis mounted with modular bodies from Frazer\u201d. <\/p>\n

Houston Fire Department Frazer Ambulance (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

According to city records, the ambulances included a special system to help power its electrical system without requiring the engine running consistently. The city also touting the ambulances would allow HFD<\/a> to \u201cpromote cleaner air for the environment\u201d. <\/p>\n

Mayor John Whitmire was unaware of the issue until 2 Investigates showed him the email. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am not familiar with electric ambulances, I don\u2019t think it makes any more sense than electric tanks,\u201d said Mayor Whitmire.<\/p>\n

2 Investigates Mario Diaz talks with Houston Mayor John Whitmire (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

\u201cOur first responders are our highest priority. They need the ambulances, the public needs the ambulances,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Marty Lancton is the President of the Houston Professional Firefighters Association. He also did not know of the issue until 2 Investigates came knocking.<\/p>\n

He tells us, \u201cSeconds matter, it\u2019s not politics. This is reality and this is about people\u2019s lives.\u201d <\/p>\n

Beyond what was outlined in the department chief\u2019s email, crews are now facing problems with charging the units. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have electricity in the back of an ambulance because we don\u2019t have enough time to charge them or have the right charging ports,\u201d said Lancton.<\/p>\n

2 Investigates Mario Diaz talks with President of the Houston Professional Firefighters Association Marty Lancton. (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

Chief Mu\u00f1oz went into greater detail for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main thing is the fuel source right? Fuel source you got to the station, you plug it in basically. It\u2019s not an electric car but you have to plug it in to maintain it and with that said, the run volume that we do does not sometimes allow for that hour and a half to two hours to be static at a station to be able to support that,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

When we put it into layman\u2019s terms of too busy and not enough time to charge, Mu\u00f1oz without hesitation said, \u201c100%.\u201d <\/p>\n

Houston Fire Department Frazer Ambulance (Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

2 Investigates sent the internal HFD email to Frazer for their perspective. A spokesperson for the company sent us the following:<\/p>\n

Regarding your inquiry, it is our understanding the units referenced have been serviced and have returned to service. We continue to take the Houston Fire Department\u2019s readiness concerns seriously and we have always acted with urgency alongside HFD and our component suppliers.<\/p>\n

Chief Mu\u00f1oz, who took over the department after the switch was made revealed the environmentally friendly ambulances are forty-thousand dollars more than traditional ambulances. He admits he was unaware if at any point an ambulance went down during an emergency.<\/p>\n

The Fire Chief tells us the city will no longer purchase these types of ambulances in the future. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston \u2013 When a life is on the line, an ambulance is the first thing Houstonians expect to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":361118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[175373,31139,4345,16300,175375,16844,16301,175374,358,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-361117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-frazer-ambulance","9":"tag-hfd","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-houston-fire-department","12":"tag-houston-professional-firefighters-association","13":"tag-investigates","14":"tag-john-whitmire","15":"tag-marty-lancton","16":"tag-texas","17":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115505918406815179","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}