Since the 1950s, Grandfalls has had an ambulance and emergency medical technicians in town. However, due to a lack of certified volunteers, the fire department had to give up its EMS program.

“So we’re down to three individuals,” Grandfalls Fire Chief J.D. Stocks said. “That’s not right for our citizens. And that’s not right for the three of us that have to be here to do that service.”

Ward County EMS provides all the emergency response to Grandfalls, but they say it takes about 20 minutes to get there from the station in Monahans.

“Our main challenge is like anybody else in the Permian Basin, the heavy traffic,” Ward County EMS Director Michael Enriquez said. “No one is pulling over for emergency vehicles. And sometimes there’s nowhere for people to even pull over on two-lane highways. That’s our biggest obstacle.”

Grandfalls residents believe taking that long to get to a hospital is unacceptable.

“I think it’s outrageous,” Regina Dodson said. “If somebody gets hurt it’s critical that they get attention immediately. Not taking 30 or 45 minutes to get somewhere.

With 835 square miles of area to cover, Ward County EMS is forced to make some tough decisions.

“If the time should arrive that there’s three or four calls pending,” Enriquez said. “If we have to we’ll bump the call. We kind of treat it like a triage system like in an emergency room. We’re going to try to get to the most critical first.”

Enriquez said that EMS teams and small towns across West Texas face the same problem. He added that cooperation between different EMS units is critical, and that to his knowledge no one in the area has gone without emergency care.