For the second time in less than a month, an Ashcroft resident has died while no ambulances were available.

The man, in his 80s went into cardiac arrest within sight of the town’s ambulance station early Sunday morning.

A pair of Fire-Rescue members heard the call and went to help but when 9-1-1 was called, they were told it would be a 30 minute wait as the nearest ambulance was in Clinton.

When paramedics arrived, the man was pronounced dead.

It’s not clear if he would have lived had they been there sooner.

On July 17, a woman died after having a heart attack, when ambulances were not available in the town.

Ashcroft Mayor Barbara Roden says both incidents have created fear within the community as she explains residents are scared the services they depend on will not be available when they need them.

“When we have an ambulance station in town that is half a block of where these two incidents both happened, and yet, it takes 30 minutes to get an ambulance; people are asking, ‘why?'”

She explains it also harms their opportunity to convince people that small communities are a good place to live.

“Things like this happen, and it just knocks us right back because people are fearful to come here because they think they wont have those emergency services or those health supports.”

Roden stresses there needs to be action taken to prevent deaths like this from continuing.

“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how we got here or how long it took, this is where we are. We need to find solutions now, we need to get creative.”

BC Emergency Health Services says it is launching an investigation into this latest incident in Ashcroft.

-With files from Paul James and Abby Zieverink