Grant provides funds for EMT training in Falls County

In mid 2023, Marlin Volunteer Fire department recognized a need to help improve how quickly medical care can get to the citizens of Falls County.  

At the time the 765 square miles that covers our county was serviced by an ambulance service with an average response time of 25 minutes. 

Because the county has multiple volunteer fire departments scattered throughout the county, the average response time of a fire department is eight minutes. But there were only 8-10 licensed EMT’s serving in departments throughout the county.  Each of those fire departments are 100 percent volunteer.  So the only way to help ensure someone with medical training is on each emergency call, is to increase the number of EMT’s serving in our county.  

So, the Marlin Volunteer Fire Department applied to the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) Emergency Service Training Institute in conjunction with the Texas Department of Transportation for the Rural/Frontier EMS Education Grant. This grant will allow 19 students to attend EMT school at a significantly reduced cost to the student.  

The chairman of the Falls County Volunteer Fire Fighters Association, Jay Shults, agreed to teach the class if we got the grant. And, Marlin Volunteer Fire Department donated the use of their meeting hall as a classroom.  They were awarded the grant in January.  

As a condition of the grant, the students were required to complete the TEEX Traffic Incident Management Responder course as a prerequisite in February and the EMT class began May 7. The students in this class are all members of volunteer fire departments or deputies with Falls County Sheriff’s Office. The departments that the 19 students represent are Chilton, Golinda, Rosebud, Marlin, Lott and Mart.  Classes will run through mid July.  

The fire departments look forward to knowing that volunteers with medical training will be significantly more likely to be on scenes of emergencies throughout the county soon.