Concan Volunteer Fire Department sees spike in calls near Concan and GSP during summer tourist season

by Michael Robinson| Uvalde Hesperian : Picture by Robinson

 Pictured: The Concan Volunteer Fire Department personel wait for the San Antonio AirLife helicopter to arrive at the helipad near the intersection of State Road 127 and Highway 83 a few weeks ago to transport a patient brought from Leakey to be flown to a San Antonio Hospital

With thousands of summer tourists traveling to float the Frio River at Concan, Garner State Park and Texas Hill Country River Region in Uvalde County, between Memorial Day and Labor Day, emergency responders traditionally see a dramatic increase in emergency response calls.

  “Our calls in Concan, typically quadruple from Memorial Day to Labor Day due to the distance to Uvalde and also the distance to a trauma center, a lot of people are flown. It also depends on if they meet the requirements per STRAC.” said Fire Chief Justin Wills of the Concan Volunteer Fire Department. “We’ve had 72 calls since Memorial Day: Memorial Day weekend 6, June was 44 and July so far is 23,” he said.

  Joel Ramerez, a flight paramedic with San Antonio AirLife based in Uvalde said so far this summer, they have flown to Concan about 6 times. 

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“Compared to Uvalde EMS it’s not very many calls but considering there’s only 200 permanent residents in Concan, that’s a lot for us.” Wills said. “We have actually been working on obtaining our own ambulance in Concan and it should be here sometime next month or September. We will be the first fire department based EMS in Uvalde County. When the ambulance comes in and is ready to go we will have an open house,” Wills said.