Cajah Mountain's EMS station improves response time, training

A mannequin sits on a sofa across from a blaring television, its simulated pulse erratic as if in medical distress. A trainee bursts through the door, equipped with all the tools they would need in the field, ready to practice saving a life while a camera watches from above.

At the new Cajah’s Mountain EMS station, this exact scenario is business as usual.

“We’re able to simulate almost all of our skills with this patient,” said Emergency Services Director Trevor Key, pointing to a mannequin with varying prosthetics and button boards allowing the replication of different medical conditions. “We can innovate. … He’s a simple mannequin, but right now we can do a lot.”

There are several mannequins of varying technological degrees scattered throughout the base, including the full-body dummy laying in a hospital bed in the simulation room.

In another room, disembodied adult and infant models lay on a table, offering the opportunity to practice resuscitation on different age ranges.

“For new folks that come in or when we do new procedures that come out for our tenured folks, being able to actually run through it and actually provide the therapy off the monitor versus just talking about it — it does help that tremendously,” Key explained.

Trainees can defibrillate, resuscitate, drill, poke, and triage mannequins in a variety of ways, sharpening their skills for real-world application.

The facility isn’t only improving training.

Since April, the new Cajah’s Mountain EMS station has cut arrival times by nearly a minute and a half in the southern part of Caldwell County, and Key only expects that number to improve.

“Seconds matter,” Key said in his office, rows of firefighter hats lining his cabinets and degrees and certificates filling the walls. “When you have that much time, a minute could mean saving someone’s life in terms of how quick we get there and provide life-saving measures for those that need it.”

What sets the base apart, however, are the unique spaces dedicated to training, including a simulated living room, a mock emergency room, advanced patient simulators, and 360-degree cameras that catch all the action, allowing trainers to evaluate a variety of scenarios without watching over a trainee’s shoulder.

Key, who spoke at the ribbon cutting for the new base on July 17, said that between the base and the newly occupied Emergency Operations Center (EOC) on Pleasant Hill Road in Hudson, Caldwell is strengthening its coverage across the board.

But the decisions didn’t happen overnight.

Town council members had been working toward the station for years, often making do by placing emergency responders around town — like a paramedic in with the North Catawba Fire Department and later an ambulance stationed at town hall — before the county purchased an old doctor’s office across the street from Living Hope Church on Connelly Springs Road in May 2024.

As well as reworking the roof and building on the six-bay emergency vehicle garage, the county refurbished the floor plan, creating living quarters and office space for the rotating eight employees who have to be available at any given time.

Although Hurricane Helene slowed down the momentum of the project, crews eventually occupied the space operationally on April 21, 2026.

Between the beginning of operations and the ribbon-cutting in mid-July, responders were dispatched on 394 calls for that specific district — which brushes against Gamewell, Hudson, Granite Falls, and Valmead — and 522 collaborative calls, assisting other districts.