Hillsborough County Fire Rescue is getting a new division.
On Nov. 5, county commissioners unanimously approved the formation of a Peak Rescue Division, a roving paramedics and ambulances unit that will offer efficient and quick response times to medical calls and transports, looking to help save lives throughout the county.
Peak Rescue Division will add 48 Hillsborough County Fire Rescue first responders, which will include 20 rescue lieutenants and 26 paramedics. A section chief and training officer will manage the division, which will begin operation in the spring.
In total, this new division would cost $5.8 million per year. However, that cost will be covered by transport fees collected when peak calls turn into transports, leading to an expected 15,000 transports per year. Each transport fee is billed out at $800 plus mileage — so it averages out to about $477 per call — meaning those would generate more than $7 million a year.
The board’s approval also included the purchase of five new rescue units for the Peak Rescue Division. The division will have 10 total units that will be on the move and operating away from fire stations. It will be staffed 12 hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays. The units will operate from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., which is the busiest time for emergency calls.
Peak Rescue units won’t be assigned to a fire station — instead being roving units, allowing them to “be more nimble and flexible to respond to calls wherever they may be needed, helping to reduce response times,” a press release said. This also frees up paramedics who are assigned to specific stations to respond to more calls for service, the release added.
In May 2024, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue created a pilot program with five roaming three-person units using existing crews to cover peak periods in key areas. It helped reduce response times by increasing the number of staff and availability during high demand.
According to the data presented at the meeting, of the 41 units in the county, 37% of them were overutilized so far this year, even as three-person peak units were in place. That was down from 55% in 2024 and way down from 79% in 2023 when no three-person peak units were in place.
“Forget the fact that it is going to pencil out perfectly financially,” District 1 commissioner Harry Cohen said. “This is something that is quantifiable that lives have been saved — there are literal people walking around today because of this 42 second improvement … so a yes vote is a vote to literally save lives.”