New data presented to the Durham County Board of Commissioners shows the county's EMS system is fielding more 911 calls than it has crews to answer for 16 hours out of every day. The County Office of Emergency Services brought those numbers to a work session on Monday. The gap is already affecting residents. Lower-priority calls are being placed on hold more frequently and for longer stretches. Chief Paramedic Seth Komansky told commissioners the agency just added full-time EMTs for the first time since 2018 and received its first new ambulance in a decade. Neither addition closes the gap. "We identified that the deployment model for EMS is about ten years old in terms of units on the streets versus the call volume," Komansky said. Pay is compounding the problem. Komansky said compensation lags behind neighboring agencies, and the current workload is burning out staff. He told commissioners the system is not sustainable. Durham's population growth has been stretching emergency-services capacity for years. EMS is now the clearest sign of that pressure. Komansky said the department is exploring adding non-paramedics to crews as a short-term measure while recruiting continues. No timeline for a broader overhaul has been announced.