Future Mayor Tommy Wells? Photo by Amber Wilkie

Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) visited a 911 call center today and was not happy with what he found.

According to a press release, the mayoral hopeful visited the Office of Unified Communications at 10:30 a.m. this morning to find that only three ambulances were available to be dispatched. Of the 39 ambulances in the fleet, 31 “were on a response call or at a hospital, with five of the remaining eight ambulances unavailable for various reasons.”

“During my visit, I learned that there were only 3 medical transport units available to respond to an emergency for the entire city and all 3 were located in the northwest portion of the city,” Wells, who chairs the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, said in a statement. “As I have stated previously, recent failures of Fire and EMS to provide transport quickly point to gaps in accountability, fleet management, and staffing.”

The D.C. Fire and EMS Department has faced increased criticism for its slow response times since a March 5 incident where a D.C. police officer waited 20 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. The department also faced scrutiny when an ambulance shut down while transporting a suspect to the hospital last month. It took seven minutes for another ambulance to arrive. The suspect later died.

Wells previously sparred with chief Kenneth B. Ellerbe at a Council hearing.