About Us

Our History 

The River Hills community was first started in the early 1970s. After several serious medical calls requiring an ambulance that took 20-30 minutes to arrive on the scene, the residents of River Hills made a decision to investigate the possibility of starting an ambulance service for the local residents. Late in 1977, preliminary meetings were held at the River Hills Community Church and a decision was made to pursue the formation of an “Emergency Squad”. With the backing of the residents and the Lions Club, equipment was purchased and members were trained as EMTs and drivers.  Finally, in early 1980 the training was completed and units were purchased and approved by DHEC. Shortly thereafter, an EMS station was founded at the front gates of River Hills. 

Beginning July 1, 1980, the Squad began taking calls and the response area ranged from Allison Creek Bridge on Hands Mill Highway to Ridge Road/Highway 557 to the intersection of Oakridge Road with the North Carolina border. Early in the history of the Squad, it was not unusual to go days between calls and the annual call volume was extremely low. In the early 1990s, we became available to staff an ALS truck 24/7. In recent years our response area has grown to span all of York County and the call volume has increased drastically. Additionally, a Prime Time truck is staffed as many days as possible each week and posted primarily in the Newport area to aid York County's growing call volume.