Fire Department Expands Emergency Medical Services

The Scarborough Fire Department is excited to announce the recruitment of eight (8) new, full-time Firefighter/EMS positions to our staff. These positions were requested and added as part of the FY2026 budget process last spring. 

Many have already asked, why eight? The broad answer is because we operate and are expected to provide emergency response services 24-hours/day, but there's more to that: 

Our plan is to use this new staffing to increase our Emergency Medical response by adding a third, 24/7, advanced life support ambulance. Each licensed ambulance must include two firefighter/EMS staff to operate. Scarborough Fire Department currently operates 4 shifts that work 24-hour shifts on a rotating basis. This means each of our four shifts requires us to hire two per shift, totaling eight. 

It is important to note, it has been over 20 years since Scarborough added our second advanced life support ambulance at the Dunstan Fire Station. In 2001, when the Dunstan ambulance was added, the call volume was under 2,500 calls for service. Since that time, our community has continued to evolve and our requests for ambulance service has increased significantly. As of today, we are on trend to complete over 6,000 calls for service in Fiscal Year 2026. 

Adding this resource will absolutely increase our ability to provide the highest quality emergency medical response that our community has come to expect. As soon as we implement this additional ambulance crew, we will immediately be able to measure improved response times and less reliance on our mutual aid partners.  

Hear more from Deputy Fire Chief Kevin Duross: