Pflugerville Fire Chief Ron Moellenberg announced Feb. 14 that the Pflugerville Fire Department, also known as Emergency Services District No. 2, had acquired its first ambulance, a significant step to improving emergency services in the area, officials said.


PFD getting its own ambulance service has been years in the making, Moellenberg said, and the process began in 2013 when ESD 2 taxpayers approved a 1/2 cent sales tax increase to fund the project.


“This is a direct result of voter support and our strategic planning process,” Moellenberg said in a statement. “We created a plan because we saw a clear need in our rapidly growing community, with most of our 8,000 calls a year being medical calls.”


In what Moellenberg termed a “soft opening,” ESD 2 put its first ambulance on the street in early January, and the department is already seeing improved emergency response times, he said.


Mike Bessner, ESD 2 commissioner and board president, said it took a lot of persistence from Moellenberg to make the project a reality, stating that every time Moellenberg faced an obstacle, he would work through the process and find a solution. ESD 2 serves about 100,000 people across 100 square miles of territory, and in recent years ambulances were not always immediately available, according to the PFD.


When a caller places a 911 call, it is routed to the Austin-Travis County combined dispatch center, where the dispatcher assigns the call to the nearest ambulance. Though the dispatch process will not change with the addition of the PFD ambulance service, it does provide a greater number of ambulances in the Pflugerville area to dispatch calls to, improving emergency response times.


“Because we truly care about those we serve, we are dedicated to enhancing services while also maintaining efficiency,” Moellenberg said. “It will be a huge benefit to our community to have such a highly skilled workforce in emergency services.”


One PFD ambulance is responding to calls for now, with another kept in reserve for use when the active unit is out of service. The PFD in May plans to add a third ambulance to its fleet in May, which will be based at the Central Fire Station in Pflugerville, allowing two units to be active for emergency calls.


Travis County Commissioner Rudy Metayer said that it is important for Pflugerville residents to know that the PFD ambulances are an addition to the existing ambulance services provided by Travis County, providing the Pflugerville community with greater access to essential pre-hospital care from qualified EMTs.