An ambulance from Prince George's County had to transport an injured D.C. police officer to the hospital Tuesday night after District authorities said they had no units available to respond.
With no ambulances available in the nation's capital, an injured police officer had to wait for a crew from nearby Maryland.
According to WJLA-TV, the officer was struck in a hit-and-run had to wait nearly 20 minutes before an ambulance arrived on scene.
Within minutes, the dispatcher realized there were no D.C. ambulances available, and called for mutual aid from Prince George's County, The Washington Examiner reported.
Kristopher Baumann, the leader of the District's police union, is blaming Fire Chief Kenneth Ellerbe.
Baumann told the reporter: "At this point, Chief Ellerbe has pushed the fire department into a place where it cannot perform even the most basic services. From everything we've seen, it has been one misstep, one act of mismanagement after another. We are now in a situation where a police officer is laying out in the cold, out in the street, because the fire chief can't provide ambulances."
Edward Smith, the president of the firefighters union, said he hoped the incident would spur the city to increase the number of available ambulances.
This wasn't the first time that Maryland ambulances have come across the line to help. On New Year's Eve, they responded to calls after 200 D.C. fire and EMS personnel called in sick. In one case, the patient with trouble breathing died.
