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PHOENIX (KSAZ) -- The cities of Glendale and Phoenix are trying something that has never been done before, as they combine fire fighters from the two cities at one station.
It's a 90-day pilot program aimed at alleviating the growing calls in a very busy area that is right at the Phoenix and Glendale borders. When they get a call for help, they were crossing that border all the time, and decided to join forces and work together.
The firefighters are working out of Glendale Fire Station 154, located near 43rd Avenue and Glendale.
"This is a very busy area," said Cpt. Rob McDade with the Phoenix Fire Department. "This truck 154, it's a workhorse for Glendale Fire. One of the busiest trucks in the nation, right on the Phoenix border."
In fact, says Cpt. McDade, Glendale Fire 154 is the 80th busiest truck in the country, fielding 4,000 calls a year. Many of those calls were to emergencies in Phoenix.
"In consequence of that, this truck is gone out of the station a lot of times, so there is no 911 response unit in this area," said Cpt. Alexander Yates with Glendale Fire Department.
This means either Glendale or Phoenix fire stations from farther away were responding to emergency calls in this area, according to Cpt. Yates.
"That, in turn, delays response times for citizens, and causes greater stress surrounding by having to bring other trucks into the area," said Cpt. Yates .
The solution was the unique partnership that has four Phoenix firefighters working out of the very busy Glendale fire station.
"We've inserted four Phoenix firefighters in a truck that can respond to any medical emergency you can think of," said Cpt. McDade. "Drowning, shooting heart attack."
Cpts. McDade and Yates said Phoenix and Glendale have always had a strong partnership, this is a great way to make the relationship even stronger. The program was started about two weeks ago, and everyone says so far, so good. After 90 days, they will look at the data of all the calls to station 154, and decide where to go from there.