History of Orange County EMS

Our roots begin with the volunteer organizations for the northern and southern halves of the county. 

Orange County Rescue Squad (OCRS) that was formed on June 13, 1968. Once chartered the rescue squad secured the building at 118 North Churton St. in Hillsborough as its first base station. The rescue squad began with 31 volunteers who were trained in Red Cross Basic First Aid and utilized a fleet of a donated vehicles. These vehicles included a laundry truck (which served as a rescue truck), a donated 1955 Cadillac donated by Butner Rescue Squad (affectionately known as Maude and used as an ambulance), and a 14ft boat.  On Jan 1, 1969 the OCRS began providing all ambulance services to northern Orange County. The earliest known paid EMS employees in Orange County are John Jeffries and WC Dawkins were hired on 7/16/1980. 

South Orange Rescue Squad was established in 1971 with two locations of operation. The volunteer Rescue Squads enjoyed a healthy relationship with the municipal service of Orange County Emergency Management [now Orange County Emergency Services] working in conjunction to provide training & human resources to staff the ambulance's that serviced Orange County citizens and the University of North Carolina campus and North Carolina Memorial Hospital [now UNC Health Care System]. Additionally the Rescue Squads provided volunteer services of vehicle extrication, confined space rescue, high angle rescue and swift water rescue.

In 1999 Orange County Emergency Management [OCEM] established an innovative change in how Emergency Medical Services were delivered to the residents of Orange County by implementing the IRV system. Subsequently the 2 volunteer squads merged into one agency Orange EMS and Rescue Squad [OEMSRS].

During the next several years implementation of the new systems of IRV and OEMSRS left a void for growth of volunteer and career EMS and Rescue services for our younger membership. In response to this OEMSRS's paid EMS division members transitioned to OCEM employees in July 2003. This step has allowed the volunteer squad to return to its roots and move forward with reestablishing a strong student and community volunteer service focused at promoting education and participation in technical rescue and emergency medical services.

To address this vision, South Orange Rescue Squad was reestablished in 2004. 

This information was sourced from https://sors.us/mission