The city of Decatur says it's time to hold first responders who don't arrive to an emergency in a timely manner responsible.
They say it's been a problem for years. The First Response Ambulance Service must arrive to city calls within minutes. If they don't, they'll pay a hefty fine.
Decatur Fire and Rescue Chief Anthony Grande and his team work directly with the city ambulance services.
"The only request is that the citizens of the city of Decatur are well taken care of in 480 seconds," Grande said.
He supports the approved ordinance that holds the ambulance service financially responsible to arrive at a scene on time. Even though the ordinance was approved, changes can me made.
"There's probably a couple of amendments they would like to tweak and that's fine," Grande said.
As it stands, ambulances must be at a scene in Decatur in 8 minutes. For all other calls in the police jurisdiction, it's 12 minutes.