GREEN RIVER — Castle Rock Ambulance Service transported 14 patients to Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County Friday during its response to the fatal crash and fire in the Interstate 80 westbound tunnel.

Kim White, director of ambulance services for Castle Rock Hospital District discussed the response while speaking to the Sweetwater County commissioners Tuesday morning. Overall, ambulance workers assessed 18 people, two of which refused transport to the hospital while the other two were fatalities.

“Our staff honestly did a phenomenal job of responding to that,” White said.

She said the ambulance service was able to staff five ambulances during the incident. Additionally, she said the ambulance service has worked out an agreement with the Rock Springs Fire Department where if all of the service’s ambulances are busy, the fire department will utilize their ambulances to respond to emergency calls or go wherever they’re needed. White said the fire department covered 911 calls while Castle Rock worked at the tunnel.

“We actually were able to transport patients very quickly and get them taken care of,” she said.

She said most of the patients transported were treated for smoke inhalation and serious injuries. She said patients she treated asked her to go help other people because they were okay, saying it was at the point where they were the next people to be transported. She thinks there were other people involved in the incident who didn’t seek medical help to ensure the more seriously injured were treated first.

“I think there were a lot of people that were involved in that that didn’t even come and talk to us because they felt like they were okay and didn’t want to take the resources,” White said.