By Mary Pieper
Globe Gazette
BRITT, Iowa — Fifty years ago, a small group of volunteers acted quickly to organize the West Hancock Ambulance Service, which still serves the communities of Britt, Corwith, Crystal Lake, Kanawha and Woden.
Three of the original EMTs got together on a recent afternoon at the ambulance building to look at old photos and reminisce.
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One of them, Carol Rork of Britt, remembered telling one of the town’s firefighters in late 1975 that she wanted to join the fire department because “I want to do something exciting for a change.”
He told her she was too small to be a firefighter. But a few months later, Rork heard a local volunteer ambulance service was starting.
“I said, ‘Whoa, there’s my chance,’” she said.
In early February 1976, the Boughton-Cataldo and Carter funeral homes, who served as the ambulance providers for the Britt area at the time, announced they were discontinuing that service.
For decades, funeral homes around the country had been doubling as ambulance provides for their communities. Their hearses were also used as ambulances.
However, by the 1970s that tradition was dying out due to stricter federal regulations on ambulances.
The Britt funeral homes also wanted to get out of the ambulance business because “it took all the undertakers away from their jobs,” Rork said.
Less than two weeks after the funeral homes’ announcement, 13 Britt residents came together to begin the process of organizing a volunteer ambulance service. This included coordinating an advisory committee, initiating a fundraising drive, recruiting volunteers and establishing EMT training.
Passing the training course was a big concern for the initial group of volunteers.
“We all thought we were going to flunk,” Rork said.
Rork, who was a nurse, took her EMT training at the same time she was studying to receive her certification as a surgical technician. She said it paid off because she passed both tests.
Paul Smith, who lived next door to Rork at the time and also part of the original West Hancock EMT graduation class, served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam in the late 1960s.
He said he was asked to join the Britt ambulance service he thought “it would be kind of nice to maybe save a life instead of taking them for a change.”
Harold Harms, another veteran from Britt who took the EMT training, learned some medical basics during his three tours in Vietnam with the U.S. Navy.
However, he said, “I wasn’t very good at science,” and failed the EMT test on the first try. He retook the test a few months later and passed.
The fledgling ambulance services raised enough funds to buy a 1974 Dodge van-style ambulance, a 1972 Cadillac ambulance, patient-care and communications equipment, and to build an ambulance garage.
The original garage was located west of the Hancock County Health System in Britt, the location of where the Summit House Retirement Community now stands. Rork is now a Summit House resident.
The current ambulance building is at 20 First Ave. SW.
Harms said what he liked best about being an EMT was the medical training he got, plus the opportunity to meet people and help them.
The worst part was responding to motorcycle wrecks, which can result in terrible injuries and deaths, according to Hams. He also said he hated going to accident calls when small children were in the vehicle.
Harms said one ambulance call he will never forget was during a blizzard in the late 1980s when the crew had to go to Crystal Lake to take a woman who was going into labor to the hospital in Britt.
It took an hour and a half to get from Crystal Lake back to Britt, according to Harms. He said at one point the ambulance got stuck in the snow.
Fortunately, the crew arrived at the hospital before the baby was born.
“It was something else,” he said. “It was a scary night.”
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the West Hancock Ambulance Service is hosting an afternoon of family activities, music and food on July 19 at the Britt Golf Course .
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