ROCK SPRINGS – The Rock Springs Fire Department is rapidly growing a small fleet of ambulances following a purchase approved by the Rock Springs City Council Tuesday night.

The Council unanimously approved spending $25,800 for a used ambulance to join the first ambulance the department purchased in February.

Kim White, director of EMS Castle Rock Hospital District, addressed the Council regarding its planned purchase and the main event driving the Council’s action – the National High School Finals Rodeo coming to the area in June.

“One of the conversations that’s come up recently is the National Finals Rodeo,” she said. “There are actually six days where there’s four events going on at the same time that require ambulance as well as ALS (Advance Life Support) and BLS (Basic Life Support). So, two staff members for every ambulance.”

She said the ambulance service cannot meet that demand on its own as it lacks the staff needed. Castle Rock has seven ambulances available, two fully staffed in Rock Springs and one in Green River. White also said they’ve been working collaboratively with other emergency providers in the area, including the EMS leadership at the RSFD. White the hard part of staffing EMS is getting people trained to provide those services. She said there are limited EMS classes in the county, making Sweetwater County one of the few where training is lacking. White said the plan to host more courses while the state’s healthcare coalition plans to host a paramedic course in April that will help bolster their numbers.

One concern that has arisen beyond the rodeo is a mass casualty situation. She said sometimes it wouldn’t matter if they had 30 or 100 ambulances, as it wouldn’t be enough.

“It’s just a matter of time, it happens all across the nation and all across the world,” she said.

She also said there have been comments made about telling a parent their child died because an ambulance was not available when they needed it, citing comments made by Mayor Max Mickelson during the Feb. 20 Council meeting.

“That is nothing the EMS would take lightly is the death of a child or of any person of any age for that matter,” she said.

She said her staff took those comments seriously and were disheartened to hear them.

“We are here for this entire community … the entire Sweetwater area,” she said.

Mickelson said the city’s intent in buying ambulances isn’t to compete but to have some capacity for ambulance service in Rock Springs.

“We can’t be a good collaborative partner if we don’t have the resources to contribute,” he said.