The number of 911 calls the city receives has reached historic levels. City Hall says that as a result, ambulance response times have once again increased. The administration is promising to launch new programs to bring the numbers down, but the City Council and unions aren't satisfied.

It now takes on average nine minutes and 22 seconds to get an ambulance during a life-threatening emergency.

"Today we are sounding the alarm," said Queens City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley.

The rising response time created its own emergency at City Hall on Tuesday where the de Blasio administration was put on the hot seat for failing to keep their numbers down.

"You are not giving better service," Crowley said to FDNY Chief James Leonard.

"We are experiencing unprecedented numbers in responses," Leonard said. "The most ever in the history of the FDNY."

That's true, 911 calls have reached historic levels.

But for years now, response times have been climbing — from nine minutes and 13 seconds in 2014 to 9 minutes and 22 seconds last year. It's even worse in certain boroughs. In Queens it takes nearly ten minutes to get an ambulance.

"I agree that services need to improve and we need to reduce response times," Leonard said.

So the fire department is trying a new pilot program in the Bronx this spring that was on display at City Hall on Tuesday.

"In this vehicle assigned with the two paramedics is a full set of paramedic equipment," said James Booth Chief of Emergency Medical Services. "This enables them to perform advanced life support procedures at the scene of the incident."

It's called a Fly Car. And what it means is in some cases, vehicles like this will respond to emergencies instead of an ambulance.

It's still full with the same equipment.

"A whole host of medications, everything that the emergency room has," Booth said.

But the hope is it gets there faster.

"This is a result of years of neglect that this happened," said President of the FDNY EMS Union Vincent Variale. "We still need additional support. We still need additional resources."

Clearly, it's not something that has entirely satisfied EMS unions. They say what the city needs is more tours and GPS is their vehicles. Unions contend ambulance drivers are just using old-fashioned maps.

"When we get a call and we don't know where that is," Variale said. "We have to look at the map and find it."

"Our EMTs and our medics, even our firefighters, know their areas," Leonard said.

That's not something keeping them quiet for now.