Mayor Keller and Albuquerque Fire Department: Restructuring the Department

April 20, 2018

Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and Albuquerque Fire Department (AFD) Chief Paul Dow announced a significant restructuring at the fire department. Because the majority of emergencies AFD responds to are medical emergencies, Mayor Keller and Chief Dow worked on measures to ensure the department can more efficiently respond to calls. AFD responds to the most calls per firefighter of any fire department in the nation with 87% of the calls being medical emergencies.

“This new structure will allow the Fire Department to deliver services in a more efficient manner,” said Mayor Keller. “In addition to protecting critical firefighting response times, the Community Paramedicine Program will help make the best use of resources by providing targeted care to indigent and distressed populations in underserved areas of our community.”

“I worked with Mayor Keller and his staff to improve efficiency of the department by reorganizing our executive level positions. We now have new divisions with a more appropriate division of labor for each Deputy Chief,” said AFD Chief Dow. “This restructuring will help ensure we remain one of the premier fire departments in the country.”

The restructure will specifically:

• Create a Community Paramedicine Program that will decrease the amount of EMS calls by proactively visiting at-risk communities ahead of an emergency call.
• Boost a unit that ensures emergencies have needed resources to address medical calls.
• Make administrative cuts at the top to ensure more funds are available for on-the-ground services. 

The Community Paramedicine Program will be headed up by Emily Jaramillo. Jaramillo will be promoted to Deputy Chief at the AFD Promotion Ceremony today, becoming the first woman Deputy Chief in the city’s history.