The Wilton Volunteer Ambulance Corps (WVAC) responded to a new, all-time high number of calls for service in 2025 — and the reasons for the increase are more nuanced than simply population growth. WVAC’s call volume is strongly linked to demand from Wilton’s nursing homes and assisted living facilities, and the numerous new medical centers along Danbury Rd. — and even the growth of Wilton’s top employer, ASML.
It’s a trend many surrounding towns are seeing too. A sampling of towns in the area revealed ambulance call increases in Norwalk, Weston and Westport, though New Canaan had a slight decrease, according to the centralized data available to WVAC.
The Wilton Police Department (WPD) has not released its 2025 data yet, but its 2024 Annual Report also showed an increase in the total number of calls for service over the previous year (despite a decrease in resident-initiated calls). Like WVAC, WPD showed a steady post-pandemic increase in calls for service, but unlike WVAC, WPD’s numbers had yet to return to pre-pandemic highs. (GMW will report WPD’s annual statistics as soon as they’re available.)
By The Numbers
WVAC logged 1,841 calls in 2025 — a modest 1% increase over the 1,821 calls in 2024, but part of a steep post‑pandemic climb from the 1,363 calls in 2020. The previous low was 1,285 calls in 2014 — a roughly 43% increase over the past decade.
Brian McDermott, the chair of WVAC’s board of directors and longtime EMT, says the nature of emergencies is inherently unpredictable, but certain dynamics are evident — like the preponderance of calls from senior care facilities versus the general population.
“Medical calls or trauma calls, they’re completely random. There’s no rhyme or reason to when someone’s going to slip and fall or have a heart attack or anything like that. So it’s difficult to trend them,” McDermott said. “All we can really do is trend the facility types — who’s calling us?”
That information is clear. Nursing homes, assisted living and extended care facilities accounted for 671 of WVAC’s calls in 2025 — far outpacing the 484 calls from single-family homes.
In fact, four facilities — Wilton Meadows (269 calls), the Greens at Cannondale (167 calls), Brookdale Place (114 calls) and Sunrise Senior Living (113 calls) — were the top four call sources, accounting for 36% of WVAC’s calls in 2025.
Following right behind the nursing/assisted living communities were senior independent-living apartments. Wilton Commons (84 calls) and Ogden House (58 calls) were among the top contributors to WVAC’s call statistics, with a combined tally that represented another 8% of WVAC’s total calls.
Wilton’s Medical Corridor
WVAC reported that medical facilities accounted for 171 (or 9%) of the total calls in 2025, led by Hartford Healthcare‘s new urgent-care facility at 30 Danbury Rd. (48 calls) and its surgery center at 50 Danbury Rd. (71 calls). WVAC responds to those facilities whenever a patient needs transportation to a hospital.
Those two facilities simply didn’t exist in Wilton until recently. They are part of the “medical corridor” that has emerged in Wilton over the last few years primarily along Danbury Rd., with numerous new medical facilities that have opened, such as Stamford Health, Nuvance and ONS, as well as Soundview Medical and OrthoConnecticut Coastal Orthopedics, which were both previously located just over the town line in Norwalk.
“All these medical facilities that were built in Wilton since then, it’s driving up our call volume,” McDermott said.
The medical corridor has been touted by Town officials for breathing new life into commercial properties and reducing vacancy rates in Wilton office buildings, as well as adding new healthcare jobs in Wilton and convenient access for residents. However, McDermott pointed out that the medical corridor has meant incremental demand for WVAC’s assistance that is not strictly due to population growth.
Are Apartments A Strain?
Overall, apartments and condos generated 232 calls in 2025 (13% of total calls). Those calls were primarily from the senior independent-living apartments at Wilton Commons (84 calls) and Ogden House (58 calls).
In contrast, Hayworth Wilton apartments (25 River Rd., formerly known as Avalon) generated just 15 calls to WVAC. Similarly, Riverside Wilton — the new 174-unit apartment building at 141 Danbury Rd. which opened for occupancy in June 2024 — generated 13 calls. Besides Hayworth and Riverside, no other multifamily housing locations were cited among the significant contributors to WVAC’s call volume.
However, the number of apartment complexes is expected to rise, with developments like 131 Danbury Rd. and 64 Danbury Rd. currently in construction. McDermott noted that population growth and call volume increases would generally be expected to go “hand in hand,” but also emphasized that Wilton’s “population” isn’t just residential.
In 2025, WVAC was dispatched to 102 business/commercial locations, including 19 calls from industrial giant ASML at 77 Danbury Rd. — making ASML, with hundreds of employees onsite each day, one of the largest single sources of calls to WVAC.
Looking Ahead
As GOOD Morning Wilton has reported, WVAC officials have been raising concerns about call volume since it hit an earlier high in 2023.
One of McDermott’s latest concerns is the prospect of another new senior living facility in Wilton. He predicted another 300 calls per year if the proposed redevelopment of the former School Sisters of Notre Dame property at 345 Belden Hill Rd. comes to fruition — an estimate he says is based on years of historical data from existing facilities in Wilton.
“We actually have data [on] how many calls we get per bed for these units,” he said. “So we know we can calculate what kind of impact that [proposed development] is going to have on our call volume.”
As a volunteer organization that operates separately from the Town of Wilton municipal government, WVAC faces a perennial challenge of recruiting and retaining enough volunteers for the 14,812 shift hours needed each year. WVAC currently has 62 active members, though a core group of 27 serves the majority of the hours. Most others are full-time students who cannot contribute year-round, and often move on from Wilton.
McDermott worries most residents don’t understand the strain on active members and constant churn of student volunteers.
“Most of our student volunteer base is kind of like a revolving door,” he said. “They’ll go away to college, maybe they’ll come back during breaks, but then we’re not going to see them… that’s not unusual.”
Despite the churn, McDermott says the core volunteers are deeply committed to the cause, even though they come from all walks of life.
“They want to help their community. It feels good,” he said. “Everybody does it because it’s so meaningful for them in some way.”
It’s absolutely insane we don’t have a full-time ambulance corps in 2026. These amazing volunteers have been serving the town for decades, but the town has grown too much and this trend is simply unsustainable. It’s long past time we create a permanent EMS department.
Also, are these elderly care facilities paying extra to the town to cover for the disproportionate number of calls every year? If not, that needs to change. Our tax dollars and donations shouldn’t be bearing that burden.
Hi Devin, thank you for your comment. Rest assured, the Wilton Volunteer Ambulance Corps has handled the increased call volumes without issue. Less than 5% of our calls have had to go to mutual aid for assistance because we were already covering other calls in town, which is well below the average in CT. Where this creates the biggest issue is that WVAC relies on patient billing for our operations. Calls to those elderly care facilities are all Medicare, which pays us pennies on the dollar.
Creating an EMS department in Wilton would not be realistic from a tax standpoint. Right now, citizens pay the town approximately $100k annually in taxes that go to WVAC, and that mostly covers workers’ comp insurance should we get injured. It does not fund our operations. We rely on patient billing and donations for that. If the town took that over, costs to taxpayers for EMS would increase at least 10-fold. A nearby community that studied taking over its EMS estimated start-up costs of $1.3-$1.9M, before ongoing annual staffing and operations costs (salaries, benefits, vehicles, maintenance, equipment, training, billing, payroll, administration, etc). If the town’s municipal operating budget was around $37M, adding those costs could be a 2-3% increase in the overall budget. Right now, citizens pay only if they use our service.
As for your statement about those facilities paying extra to the town to cover the disproportionate # of calls each year, 1st, no, they do not; 2nd, they should not pay the town, they should pay WVAC directly, as WVAC is not a town department. It is a stand-alone non-profit 401c(3) organization. But yes, I agree that these facilities should pay WVAC per bed annually.
I hope this helps clarify things.
Thanks!!