Following months of advocacy from local firefighters, the City of Long Beach is preparing to add another ambulance unit to handle a rising number of emergency calls.
The Rescue 2 Peak Load Unit ambulance will run seven days a week, 24 hours a day and will focus on the downtown area, following the same schedule and protocols from its pilot program in 2024. Long Beach will now have 10 ambulances serving the city, and having another ambulance stationed out of downtown means a lower workload for those working in other parts of the city.
“This agreement isn’t about asking for more, it’s about doing better,” said Long Beach Firefighters Association President Lamont Nguyen. “It’s proof that when labor and management chooses partnership over politics, the entire community wins. Together, we’ve shown what it means to lead by action, not words marking a new era of partnership and real public safety investment.”
Rescue ambulances respond to incidents like heart attack, cardiac arrest, a seizure, a severe allergic reaction, blood loss and more. These are scenarios a firetruck unit alone cannot solve.
The addition of the Rescue 2 Peak Load Unit is part of a three-year labor agreement between the City and the Long Beach Firefighters Association. It’s the first time a new compensation package has been paired with direct operational improvements, which means the department may have to advocate for the unit again when the contract expires.
Long Beach City Council ratified the new labor agreement at its meeting Tuesday night.
“For decades, public safety discussions in Long Beach revolved around doing more with less. But the Firefighters Association made the case that sustainability, and safety, demanded more than words,” Nguyen said. “It required action, accountability, and the courage to place collective wellbeing over convenience. This week, that promise became reality.”
The labor agreement also included salary increases each year for the next three years, wellness pay and more opportunities for employees to qualify for the Firefighter II skill pay. Six employees will be added to man the paramedic unit, which the City hopes to be operational in the next few weeks.
Long Beach firefighters and paramedics have been advocating for this additional ambulance since March, when over 50 firefighters spoke at a city council meeting about how they run out of ambulances on a daily basis. In response, the City approved temporary funds to keep the Rescue 2 Peak Load Unit running for the rest of the year, but things looked bleak again when the department’s $200 million budget passed in August with no additional funding set aside for the unit.
Labor talks spanned seven meetings and resulted in $19 million drawn from the City’s budget for the three-year agreement.
“This contract is more than a deal, it’s a precedent. It ensures that future leaders, policymakers, and labor partners can look to 2025 as the year Long Beach chose partnership over politics, strategy over slogans, and community over complacency,” Nguyen said. “It also marks a decisive shift away from the old mindset of doing more with less.”
Even with the now 10 paramedic units serving the city, Fire Department Chief Dennis Buchanan said in March that Long Beach needs at least 11 paramedic units, all running 24-hour shifts. The national average for a city is 21,000 residents per rescue unit, whereas Long Beach has 55,000 residents per rescue unit.
Long Beach had 42 “out of service” incidents in 2024, when there was no rescue ambulance available for five or more minutes.
During the recent budget season, Buchanan once again told the City that they need more ambulances and rescue units, on top of the Rescue 2 Peak Load Unit.
