ASHCROFT, B.C. — “The system is broken in a lot of ways, we need to find fixes not just Band-Aids but permanent solutions,” said Barbara Roden, Mayor of Ashcroft.
Tragedy has struck the village of Ashcroft for the second time in month, as a local resident has passed away while waiting for an ambulance to arrive on scene.
“It’s caused a lot of fear, and will it happen again. How fearful or how worried do I have to be that it might be me on the end of the line,” said Roden.
With the ambulance responding from 30 minutes away, the local volunteer fire chief rushed to the station to grab the defibrillators and then to aid the patient. He did all that as just a private citizen.
“We need people to realize that our volunteer firefighters are a precious commodity and we can’t afford to be putting more mental stress on them than what they have already,” added Roden.
One incident could be described as a random event. Two in one month,, however, have local residents concerned it could become a pattern.
“It’s scary. It’s something that I think we all think about, those moments of what could happen. That level of safety and security in our communities,” said local resident Pamela Berg
