San Francisco first responders feel the impact after two EMTs were attacked

San Francisco first responders are feeling impacts after an attack on an ambulance and two EMT's

Police in San Francisco say they are still searching for a suspect who attacked an ambulance, and tried to run over two EMT's.

San Francisco police are still looking for the man who attacked two paramedics as they were waiting or calls in a south of market parking lot. That man breaking in the windows with a sharpened stick, forcing the paramedics inside to run for safety, the suspect then got behind the wheel, trying to mow them down.

The fire department says those paramedics are ok, even finishing their shift in another ambulance, the department says mental health care is being made available to them.

"People do care, and people are supporting them," said Lt. Jonathan Baxter from the San Francisco Fire Department. "So, I can't thank the community enough."

The department says the latest budget includes money for new firefighter, EMT and paramedic classes. The concern is a nationwide shortage of first responders, and incidents like Monday's attack don't help when recruiting and retaining crews.

"But that doesn't mean that we're not staffing, we're staffing with overtime, we're staffing with mandatory overtime in some certain circumstances," said Lt. Baxter.

San Francisco's firefighter union says attacks on firefighters and paramedics have become all too common, and are part of the reason for some retirements, and contribute to the difficulty in retaining emergency responders.

"Now we're starting to see that play out as these things, these assaults, these unprovoked assaults start to happen more and more often," said Tim Finch from SFFD Local 798.

While staff is always a concern, the city is now short one ambulance. The city needs custom-made box ambulances to accommodate multiple paramedics at a time, and navigate San Francisco's hilly terrain. While the city hopes to repair the damaged ambulance using parts from old ambulances, the supply chain difficulties that have hit the nation are making it difficult for the department to get replacement ambulances. Meanwhile an older backup ambulance will have to be brought in to fill the hole.

"When we get one ambulance that's not in our fleet that's not available for response it does impact our system," said Lt. Baxter.

Police say the suspect took off as police arrived on scene, the last time they saw him he was scaling a nearby fence.