By Ryan Marshall
The Frederick News-Post
WALKERVILLE, Md. — Walkersville’s fire company would like Frederick County to provide a second ambulance team to help it meet increased demand for its services, and would like the town to support its request.
The company has one 24-hour ambulance company but needs another, Chief William Cramer told the town’s burgess and commissioners last week.
The town has added several new residential developments in the past several years, as well as a school for children with special needs, and other things that create more calls for service, Cramer said.
The company previously responded to about 130 calls per month, but last month, it received 186, he said.
A change in the county’s dispatch service that bases responses on the time it takes an ambulance to get to a call rather than the distance traveled has added the area on Md. 26 down to U.S. 15 to the station’s coverage area, Cramer said.
The station missed 14 calls last month while out on other calls, requiring crews from other stations, usually Woodsboro or a station on Thomas Johnson Drive in Frederick, to fill in on those second calls, he said.
According to statistics from Frederick County’s Division of Fire and Rescue Services, ambulance calls for the Walkersville station have increased from 1,512 in calendar year 2023 to a projected 1,928 for 2025, a 27.5% increase.
Walkersville Burgess Chad Weddle serves as the fire company’s chaplain.
He said the town would send a letter to Division of Fire and Rescue Services Chief Tom Coe and make a request to other county officials when the county starts its budget process.
The issue in Walkersville is clearly call volume, with both the growth in the town and the station gaining some service area, Coe said Tuesday.
Even with the increased volume, the average time for an ambulance from Walkersville to get to a call has dropped from 6 minutes and 1 second in 2023 to 4 minutes and 56 seconds this year, Coe said, a very good response time.
The average response time for any ambulance in the county to respond to calls in Walkersville’s area has gone from 6 minutes and 6 seconds in 2023 to 4 minutes and 58 seconds in 2025, according to DFRS statistics.
Walkersville submitted a request for another ambulance crew last year, which didn’t make it through the budget process, Coe said.
But the county will look at the company’s request again in the upcoming budget cycle, he said.
The Carterville City Council approved a 12-hour day shift with 12 hours on-call overnight to cut second-call response times
An ad hoc panel will review options as Essex County proposes an EMS Stabilization Plan
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