By Jennifer Rios
San Angelo Standard-Times
REAGAN COUNTY, Texas — In rural West Texas, emergency responders are becoming a rare commodity.
Miles of highways and caliche roads separate volunteer EMS and firefighters from where they need to be — whether it’s a school bus crash, cardiac arrest or a pasture fire.
Over the past several years the number of volunteers — most of whom have full-time jobs — is dwindling in Reagan County and the surrounding area.
With a growing population and more people unwilling to volunteer, officials worry about how to treat and transfer patients to larger hospitals.
“My fear is that someone is going to die because no one can go out there,” Cindy Weaherby, a certified EMS volunteer with the Big Lake Volunteer Fire Department, said. “Because of a lack of response.”
The problem doesn’t stop at Reagan County lines.
Big Lake VFD Chief and EMS Director Alan Garner said he partners with Ozona and Barnhart volunteer firefighters to cover the area.
With a large number of elderly and an increase in drilling in Reagan County — which has meant more oil field accidents and crashes — Weatherby said she expects the volume of calls to increase.
The Big Lake VFD has 14 volunteers — seven of whom are certified EMTs. At least two certified EMTs must operate an ambulance before it leaves the station. Noncertified volunteers help by lifting, checking on supplies and anything not dealing directly with a patient.
Garner and Robin Collins, assistant fire chief and assistant EMS director, fill the only two paid positions, which run Monday through Friday. Everyone else is called away from their lives — regular jobs, meals and sleep.
Two years ago, Reagan County comissioners voted to grant $10 per emergency run to help with fuel costs, Weatherby said. A year ago, they offered $50 — $25 from Reagan Memorial Hospital and $25 from the county — for an ambulance transfer, which includes moving a patient from Reagan Memorial to a San Angelo hospital.
Weatherby said neither helped recruit volunteers.
Residents are running out of options and are looking at paid positions.
Big Lake resident Donna Holden was appointed to a committee designed to address the problem. Holden acts as a citizen along with representatives from the city council, the county commissioners court and the hospital district.
Holden said members are gathering information on two options — hiring a private EMS company or having a paid department run by the county — to present to county commissioners. She said the committee has met with one private company so far.
“My interest in it is the preservation of life,” Holden said. “To ensure we as townspeople and county citizens will always have medical response available at any given time.”
Holden said her mother has needed medical attention on several occasions — the most recent on Feb. 12 when her mother was transported from a Big Lake hospital to one in San Angelo.
“The town is full of people who have needed EMS response in one form or fashion at any given time,” Holden said. “The ambulance is very active, our EMS personnel are very active.”
Ozona Fire Chief Bob Falkner said in his area they’re at times overwhelmed by fires — 210 calls last year — and crashes along Interstate 10. Falkner said 36 firefighters make up his team. During the day he’s lucky to get three — at night the number is closer to 10.
He said he saw a decline seven or eight years ago.
“We can get people to sign on,” he said. “It’s getting them to commit and actually respond.”
Garner said once people realize it takes training, certification and leaving at midnight for grass fires and not returning until the next day, “they drift away.”
And timing couldn’t be worse for a lack of volunteerism, said Garner, who has been serving for the past 23 years. In the first five years he worked for the department, they averaged 200 calls a year. During the past few years that number has doubled.
Barnhart Fire Chief Jimmy Baker said it takes all three counties — Reagan, Irion and Crockett — to get the job done. The three also work closely with Shane Crimm, regional fire coordinator with the Texas Forest Service.
“We’re one huge family,” Garner said. “Especially these three departments. I spend as much time with them as at home.”
Garner said the usual timespan of a volunteer is five years, but the core group he works with has put in far more years.
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