BOISE, Idaho — Prairie is a small ranching community in Elmore County about 53 miles southeast of Boise. It draws a lot of visitors for its hunting, fishing and recreation.
To get there, you have to drive 30 miles along a dirt road, and the town is 40 miles away from the nearest medical facility.
So what happens when there is a medical emergency?
Prairie QRU & Fire is a quick response unit with about 16 volunteer EMTs. They answer the call and are able to respond to emergencies in the area from nearby.
“I think we’re all really proud of the service we can provide," Victoria Davison, a volunteer EMT with Prairie QRU & Fire said. "Although we don’t like to respond to calls because it means someone else is having a bad day, we’re proud to be able to provide the service that we do and the high quality of care.”
Prairie QRU & Fire was established in 1987. The volunteer unit responds to a lot of trauma calls, like ATV accidents and falls. They also see a number of medical calls for emergencies like heart attacks and strokes.
“Most of our medical emergencies are often deemed worthy of AirMed transport," Davison said. "So we often call in helicopters to fly them out of here.”
Their quick response is important in medical emergencies, where mere minutes can make all the difference.
“Our primary ambulance is based in Mountain Home. I came up this morning, it was almost an hour drive," Alan Roberts, the emergency services director for Elmore County said. "So if you think about a medical response, that first five minutes for CPR or breathing problems - it’s huge to have people that can be on scene and taking care of stuff. So they’re a very needed agency up here and defiantly well appreciated.”
The community showed just how much they appreciate their EMT unit at Prairie QRU & Fire's 4th annual Chili Cook-Off on Saturday.
The cook-off is a fundraiser to help the quick response unit raise money to build a station.
"So right now we have two emergency vehicles – we don’t have a place to put them," Davison said. "So we have them staged at our volunteer EMTs’ homes, so in the case of an emergency they respond from their house and their ambulance. So we’re hoping to build a building to be able to house our emergency vehicles, our emergency equipment and also a training facility.”
The event had 18 cooks battling it out for the best chili. There were also craft vendors, who paid a booth fee as a donation. A live auction made up of donations by locals and local vendors was also held.
Prairie has less than 100 full-time residents. The Chili Cook-Off drew a larger attendance than the town's population.
Prairie QRU & Fire both do not charge a dime for their services.
"No contribution whatsoever, we’re all volunteer," Davison said. "We all volunteer our time to go through training and when we have a call it’s all volunteer as well, they’ll never see a bill from our agency.”
The chili cook-off started four years ago, and has grown each year.
"We’ve been raising money every year since then," Davison said. "Since we started, we’ve been able to build the shell of our building, so we have a concrete foundation, concrete pad. Our building has a shell, we’re waiting on doors to come in – hopefully, next week. Then we’ll move on hopefully after this to the bigger things that need to be completed.”
Alan Roberts is the emergency services director for Elmore County. They oversee all the EMS rescue and quick response units in Elmore County, including Prairie's volunteer unit. He said volunteer units like the one in Prairie are becoming less common.
"We’re losing our volunteer status, obviously you see the news and even full-time places where we’re struggling to keep EMTs and paramedics on staff all the time," Roberts said. "To have an agency like Prairie up here...and they’re all strictly volunteer, but they love their community and they love what they do. So it’s a huge, huge benefit for us, for the county. And then we can support them as we can to keep that agency alive.”
Watch more Local News:
See the latest news from around the Treasure Valley and the Gem State in our YouTube playlist: