BEN NUCKOLS
Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The District of Columbia’s fire chief is set to explain why a police officer injured in a hit-and-run had to wait 15 minutes for an ambulance from Maryland.

Chief Kenneth Ellerbe’s testimony Thursday before a D.C. Council committee comes days after the city firefighters’ union overwhelmingly approved a resolution expressing no confidence in his leadership.

The failure to provide an ambulance to the injured officer and other shortcomings in the fire department’s fleet have raised questions about whether the department has enough resources to handle the emergency call volume in the fast-growing nation’s capital.

An internal investigation blamed individual employees for the ambulance response. But the District’s inspector general has also found a lack of adequate reserve vehicles, both ambulances and fire trucks.

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