The situation led to Wailupe emergency responders operating out of an SUV and partnering with a private ambulance operated by American Medical Response on every emergency call Tuesday.

Officials with Honolulu’s Emergency Medical Services tell us it’s the first time they’ve been in this situation.

With EMS getting an average of 220 911 calls a day, is the department still capable of responding to emergencies?

A spokesperson says yes.

"I think the board is paying attention and the message is consistently the same," Whitfield said. "The board is monitoring response times in the city of Buffalo. We have no report of negative outcomes for clinical care for any patients in the city of Buffalo, and that's a good thing."

A News 4 Investigates analysis of 2015 calls shows that Rural Metro response times appeared to be getting worse for the most serious calls in the second half of the year.

In Jan-June, there were 1003 calls for cardiac arrest or chest pain. Of those 243 or 24 percent had response times longer than the required 8 min 59 seconds; 40 waited 15 minutes or longer.

In July-Dec, there were 1067 calls for cardiac or chest pains. Of those, 322 or 30 percent had response times longer than the required 8 min, 59 seconds; 50 waited 15 minutes or later.

Mike Addario, Rural Metro's vice president of operations, said new tracking technologies will soon be operational, and that more EMT's and Paramedics will be added to help with response times.