In the summer of 1971, so the story goes, a furniture truck hit a 4-year-old boy who died in the street after waiting 45 minutes for an ambulance to respond from Raleigh into Cary, North Carolina, a rapidly growing suburb.
This prompted some active citizens to form the Cary Area Rescue Squad, a Squad that started answering emergency calls — only later as “911” calls — on Aug. 18, 1972, just about a year later.
During the 50 years that followed, nearly 600 people worked for the nonprofit, contract agency in Wake County. This is the story of how the agency got started and evolved.
On Feb. 4, 2021, the county manager notified officials with Cary Area EMS that Wake County would no longer service the contract with Cary Area EMS. On April 1, 2021, Cary Area EMS ceased providing emergency response service to the more than 166,000 people in the Town.
And the agency evolved yet again.
By Bradley Wilson, Ph.D.
©2022