Seeing scenes with multiple ambulances remind me of a couple of incidents here in the Midland/Odessa area.
The first occured in the summer of 1960 at the annual airshow at the Midland International Airport. Thomas Funeral Home had their new 1960 Ford sedan-delivery ambulance on site for standby, while Ellis F.H. had their '58 Chrysler. My dad had taken me to the airshow, and while we were walking just past the static displays we spotted where the two ambulances were sitting. The late David Baimbridge, one of Ellis' managers, was driving the Chrysler. He and Dad were longtime friends, so we started to walk over where they were parked when suddenly a police motorcycle officer rolled up to where the ambulances were sitting. Everyone went in motion and both units took off with lights and sirens with the motorcycle cop in the lead. Turns out that there had been a headon collision just outside the airport entrance. In those days it was a divided highway, but people coming out of the airport were forever turning into the wrong lane of traffic. Now from town Ellis rolled their 1959 Ford station wagon, which was their first out unit, along with their '57 Superior Cadillac combo. Thomas rolled their '57 Plymouth wagon. The Plymouth wagon was, by far, the most spectacular looking ambulance for its day, with a lighted Q siren front center flanked by four red Unity lights, with a 17 beacon in the rear and an FL8 Mars light on the right fender. Only problem was that the car only had the standard generator and a single battery. Just east of the airport for westbound traffic was a slightly steep hill that had to be climbed and then on the downward side was the airport entrance. Thomas' Plymouth was just starting up the steep hill, and that overtaxed the underpowered electrical system and set some of the wiring under the dash on fire. They pulled over, tossing sand under the dash (no fire extinguiser on board). Ellis' '57 combo didn't transport and they had an extinguiser, so they stopped and helped put out the fire. Thomas ran that Plymouth with only the outboard Unities and the beacon from that point until they went out of business temporarily a few months later.
Next: on a November Saturday in 1964 a plane crashed at the airport on landing. It was an old DC3 with five people on board; but the initial reports were that it was a commercial craft that had just left the airport. All available ambulance from Midland and Odessa responded. First in were Ellis' 1961 Chevy Panel ambulance and their '63 almost-unmarked Chevy wagon. The panel crew cut across the runway, but the '63 wagon continued to the airport entrance where they were met by the airport police car who had loaded all 5 victims in the unit. So as it turned out that Chevy wagon made all the transports into Midland. Meanwhile everyone else was still responding: seven ambulances from the three Odessa funeral homes and the four Midland ambulances. In those days none of the Odessa ambulances were radio equipped, so there was no way for them to be turned around. Ellis' panel driver notified the dispatcher in Midland that everyone had been transported, so they were able to cancel Thomas' units, but all the Odessa units continued. That had to have been quite a sight.
