CRESCENT, Okla. — The Crescent ambulance service is being forced to shut down because of low staffing.
According to state law, the ambulance service can’t stay open if it doesn’t have enough EMTs to cover the town 24/7, KFOR reported.
The president of the Ambulance Board of Crescent, Crai Lotz, said their hands are tied. They have tried everything they could to get enough EMTs.
“We pay minimum wage and that’s all we can afford to pay,” he said. “We’d had one, two, three, four people resign that were full time volunteers, so that leaves us with two EMTs.”
Without a local service, Crescent’s 1,500 residents will be served by nearby Guthrie EMS agency, located 15 miles away.
“Twenty minutes can be life or death, it really can,” said Patti Orcutt, a Crescent resident.