Harris County Emergency Corp's.

[DMac]

Are there any old timers and/or retired rescue or fire personnel who may remember the old Harris Cnty Emerg. Corp's. I am trying to learn more history about them. I am unclear as to wheather or not they had any connection to Hou. Fire Dept.

I do know that they had a sta. @ the corner of No. Main & Pecore w/several pieces of apparatus during the period of '43 - '54 which was old sta 15 before it moved into new quarters @ Tthe jct. of Tabor/Mellwood/No. Main.

There apparatus was painted white & blue w/the old CD symbol logo affixed.

I passed by there sta. twice/day on way to/from school {Hogg Jr. H/S}.

Respectfully

Danny

[brucesw]

I think there were 2 such organizations back when ambulance service was handled by funeral homes and before professional EMTs. The other one was the Mercy Corps, I think.

My uncle was a captain in the HFD and he belonged to one, I think the latter. He used his own personal car which had emergency lighting and siren and a trunk loaded with first aid supplies.

I'll try to get in touch with his daughters and see if I can find out more.

As far as I know neither one had any official connection with HFD or any other fire department in the county.

[TheNiche]

I think there were 2 such organizations back when ambulance service was handled by funeral homes and before professional EMTs.

Paramedics working for funeral homes?

Can anybody say "Conflict of Interest?"

[TJones]

Paramedics working for funeral homes?

Can anybody say "Conflict of Interest?"

Just think if that practice was still alive today ?<--- No pun) How many kidneys do you think would be harvested ?

Edited November 18, 2006 by TJones

[DMac]

I think there were 2 such organizations back when ambulance service was handled by funeral homes and before professional EMTs. The other one was the Mercy Corps, I think.

My uncle was a captain in the HFD and he belonged to one, I think the latter. He used his own personal car which had emergency lighting and siren and a trunk loaded with first aid supplies.

I'll try to get in touch with his daughters and see if I can find out more.

As far as I know neither one had any official connection with HFD or any other fire department in the county.

Are you reading something into the message that the rest of us are not. Yours is the 1st message to mention paramedics. Given the time period {47 - 60} I'm certain all who read it will understand my inquiry has nothing to do w/paramedics @ all.

Respectfully

Danny

[FilioScotia]

Paramedics working for funeral homes?

Can anybody say "Conflict of Interest?"

Until the early 70s, all ambulance service in Houston was provided by funeral homes and other private ambulance services, whose drivers competed for "hauls" just like wrecker drivers. They would listen to police scanners and race through traffic to get there first and it was scandalous and mercenary beyond belief.

Ambulances owned by some "white" funeral homes wouldn't pick up black victims or even go into black areas. It wasn't unusual for drivers to leave a scene empty when they determined the victim couldn't pay. It was common to see ambulance drivers propping up victims on their gurney so they could write a check. And there were no paramedics. That job didn't exist in this area at that time. Ambulance drivers were just that -- drivers -- with little or no medical training or skills.

All these abuses and more led the City of Houston to create the HFD ambulance division in the early 70s. That effort was spurred and helped along by the popularity of the TV show "Emergency", which showed trained Paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians using the latest technology to connect with doctors in the ER to treat people at the scene and keep them alive long enough to get to the hospital.

We take that for granted now, but it was very new back then. Nobody in this part of the country had ever seen anything like it, and people started demanding it. Houston City Council got the message and in April of 1971, they created the HFD Ambulance Division, and ordered Paramedic and EMT training for HFD personnel assigned to the ambulances.

To make it work, Council also prohibited private ambulances from responding to emergencies inside the city limits. You can imagine how well that went over. Private haulers kicked and screamed to high heaven, but there had been so many unbelievable abuses that no one felt any sympathy for them.

I should also point out that not all the private ambulance services were bad. Some were conscientious and did the best job they could, but there were enough bad apples to ruin the whole barrel for everybody.

Edited November 20, 2006 by FilioScotia

[brucesw]

Are you reading something into the message that the rest of us are not. Yours is the 1st message to mention paramedics. Given the time period {47 - 60} I'm certain all who read it will understand my inquiry has nothing to do w/paramedics @ all.

Respectfully

Danny

I think you meant to reply to The Niche rather than me but no matter.

Filo Scotia has given a very good history of emergency services. I didn't remember it was that late that the FD took them over but I do remember the first time I saw one of the 'modulances' was in the early 70s.

Stretcher bearers would be a better term for the ambulance crews than paramedics; my brother worked for one of the firms that was legitimate for a few months in the early 60s. His only training was the first aid training he had in Boy Scouts. Emergency medical supplies consisted mostly of band-aids, rolls of gauze, various sizes of gauze pads, adhesive tape, tourniquets, rubbing alcohol, balsa wood splints for broken bones and perhaps snake bite kits.

Ambulance services were supposed to be dispatched by HPD but in practice many just listened to the scanners and rolled whenever there was a report of an accident or crime scene they thought they might be needed at. HPD conducted stings from time to time, broadcasting a report of a major accident, then waited at the scene with citation books ready for all the firms that rolled up unauthorized. My brother's firm, which, like many, was based in Montrose which was pretty much center of town then, never got caught because they always waited for the telephone call from the HPD dispatcher before rolling.