The Chief
BY DUNCAN FREEMAN | September 25, 2025
FDNY ambulance’s average response times to life-threatening medical emergencies climbed by almost 30 seconds last fiscal year compared with the previous year, according to the recently released Mayor’s Management Report, the fourth year in a row that response times for the department’s ambulances have worsened.
It took ambulances 11 minutes, 21 seconds on average to reach the scene of emergencies for the period between July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025, nearly two minutes longer than during FY 2021 — the time frame that included the height of the pandemic — when ambulances took 9 minutes, 34 seconds to reach the scene of the call.
But, according to the MMR, the increase came despite the fact that EMS workers responded to 30,000 fewer calls in FY25 than the year prior — 1,615,531 vs 1,644,446 — which works out to about 80 fewer calls per day. That call volume doesn’t match up with what Anthony Almojera, a lieutenant paramedic in Brooklyn, said he’s been seeing on a daily basis.
On Sept. 19 alone, Almojera said, FDNY EMS received more than 6,300 calls, higher than the previous day’s 6,088. “We have not been below 5,000 in my memory at all this year,” said Almojera, who is also the vice president of Local 3621, the EMS officer’s union.
That perception is at odds with the city’s data, which says there were an average of 4,361 medical emergency calls per day in FY 2025, slightly lower than the previous year, but far higher than the average of 3,794 in FY21. The FDNY has been attempting to decrease response times through a Hospital Liaison Unit to reduce EMS turnaround times at hospitals, a new initiative that transfers low-acuity 911 calls to telehealth providers and through a public service campaign educating New Yorkers on when it’s appropriate to call – or not call – 911.
But that effort has not yet improved ambulance response times, which appear to have climbed due to several factors. Union leaders have long said that chief among them is an understaffed, underpaid that chipped away at the morale of a workforce not equipped to respond to the increasing health needs of New Yorkers who increasingly rely on emergency responders more as healthcare costs have skyrocketed.
Higher call volumes and worsening city traffic have also been cited as reasons for increased response times, including by a City Hall spokesperson in a statement last week.
“While the increase in emergency response times is the result of several factors beyond our control, including a drastic increase in outer-borough traffic congestion and higher call volumes, we continue to address this issue by improving coordination with hospitals, enhancing efficiency in high-volume areas, and leveraging telehealth technology to streamline care,” said Liz Garcia, a spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams. “We take this issue extremely seriously and will continue to take steps to keep New Yorkers safe.”
The FDNY deferred comment to City Hall.
Firefighters’ average response time to structural fires has largely held steady in the last four years according to the MMR, increasing from 4 minutes, 52 seconds in FY21 to 5 minutes, 6 seconds in FY25. There were more fires, both structural and non-structural, in FY25 than the previous year as well as more “serious fires” that required responses from more than 60 FDNY personnel.
Fires killed 76 New Yorkers in the most recent fiscal year, two more than the year previous but fewer than the 106 and 92 lost in fiscal years 2023 and 2022. The NYPD average response time to crimes in progress decreased by almost 30 seconds between FY25 and FY24, but the 12 minutes and 30 second figure is higher than the 12 minutes it took in FY23.
‘Pattern is going to continue’
According to the report, FDNY first responders are reviving a lower number of cardiac arrest patients, including New Yorkers’ whose cardiac arrests are witnessed by the responders. In FY 2025, just 17 percent of cardiac arrest patients were revived, down from 20 percent in the last two fiscal years, while 31 percent of witnessed cardiac arrest patients were revived, down from 37 percent the previous year.
Almojera said those figures are part of the sad reality of increased response times. “When it takes 12 minutes plus to get to a cardiac arrest, I’m already six minutes over biological death.”
Oren Barzilay, the president of Local 2507, which represents FDNY EMTs, paramedics and fire protection inspectors, said he expects response times and poor cardiac-arrest outcomes to continue increasing unless “real investments” are made into EMS.
“This pattern is going to continue because they’re not paying them right and people are leaving all the time,” he said.
This fall, more than 180 current and former members of FDNY EMS are set to become firefighters through the promotional exam held in May 2024. A 2023 city law expanded eligibility for that exam for any EMT or paramedic who turned 29 before Dec. 31, 2019, because the pandemic-era 2020 exam was cancelled, adding over 300 to the list of possible test takers.
The FDNY is training and hiring EMTs and paramedics as fast as possible, City Hall officials say. The most recent class of 137 EMT’s graduated from the academy in June.