The Salt Lake City Fire Department has signed a contract for an Arizona-based company to provide 911 ambulance service to the city.

But the company that has been providing ambulance service to Salt Lake City for more than 30 years said it is perplexed and even a bit angered by the decision.

The Salt Lake City Fire Department has contracted with Mesa-based Southwest Ambulance for 911 services.

"The fire department is pleased to reassure the citizens that 911 medical services will continue to be the best it can possibly be in Salt Lake City," said fire spokesman Scott Freitag.

For more than 30 years, Gold Cross had provided the city's ambulance service. Vice President Mike Moffitt said he was surprised by the fire department's decision to sign with a new company.

"It just does not make sense. It's a move that will jeopardize the safety and welfare of the citizens of Salt Lake City," he said.

In 2004, the Utah Legislature changed the law so cities could choose ambulance service through competitive bidding, rather than through state regulators in a process that favored Gold Cross. That was also the year the contract between Gold Cross and the Salt Lake City Fire Department expired.

"Rather than renew, the city introduced competition into the process so the city could make sure it could get the best provider it could," Freitag said.

Gold Cross and Southwest responded to the Request For Proposals (RFPs) from Salt Lake City Fire. A nine-member committee consisting of five from the Salt Lake City Fire Department and four professionals from the private sector read the proposals and listened to each company's presentation before making what Freitag said was a unanimous decision.

"Southwest Ambulance responded the best. They most closely met the needs of the city in terms of our RFP," Freitag said. "We wanted to find a partner in our RFP that would integrate into our fire department."

Gold Cross disagrees.

"The service Salt Lake City citizens are getting today is much better than it will be if we're replaced by the other company," Moffitt said. "I'm perplexed as to why they went to a new company from out of state when there have been no issues or complaints (about Gold Cross) since 1971. Our response times have continually exceeded their standard."

Among some of the changes with Southwest: The company will put its EMT crews on the same 24-hour shift and same neighborhoods as firefighters.

"So they will always work with the same ambulance crew," Freitag said.

Southwest will also use the same dispatch system as Salt Lake City Fire. The company will send 14 ambulances to Utah with 7 of them in service at any one time. That means the ambulances will be dedicated to Salt Lake City only, except in cases where the fire department is assisting other agencies.