Imagine having a heart attack or being in an auto accident and not having an ambulance available to respond.

Think it couldn't happen in Mercer County? It has, 31 times between Jan. 1 and April 10, according to Mercer County Director of Public Safety James R. Thompson.

And what that has prompted is a collaborative effort by Mercer County commissioners, the county public safety and health departments and the county's four private ambulance companies -- McGonigle and Rural Metro in the Shenango Valley, Life Force in the Greenville area and Superior in the Grove City area -- to take a closer look at what they say is a growing problem.

"That's inexcusable," said Commissioner Kenneth A. Seamans. "That's 31 times somebody called for an ambulance and there wasn't one available. And that's why we have to get our heads together to come up with a plan. We just can't permit that to happen."

Thompson agrees.

"We're trying to look at it before we see it get to a crisis situation," Thompson said. "And if it's one time a year and it's you, it's a crisis."

J. Bradley McGonigle III, part owner of the family-run ambulance business in Sharon, isn't quite convinced, however, that it's even close to a crisis.

"I don't see it as a problem, quite frankly," McGonigle said. "It's not the first time this issue has been brought to the table and it won't be the last. The fact of the matter is, you can never have enough ambulances and we've done our best to continue to add ambulances to our fleet as the need arises."

To help come up with solutions, Thompson recently sent letters to the elected officials of 11 communities -- Clark, Jefferson Township, Sharpsville, West Middlesex, Farrell, Lackawannock Township, Shenango Township, Wheatland, Hermitage, Sharon and South Pymatuning Township -- seeking their input on how to solve the problem that has become what he said is a major concern.

"I'm not asking the communities to do anything specifically, other than to make their elected officials aware that we're trying to do something, to tell them where we're at and what we're finding," Thompson said.

In the letter, Thompson said it was 911 dispatchers who first brought the problem to his attention.

Thompson said that after poring over hard copies of 1,200 ambulance calls from Jan. 1 to April 10, it was determined there were 31 incidents, including 27 in the Shenango Valley alone, where an ambulance was not available.

Sharon was the most-affected area with 16 incidents, followed by Sharpsville and Hermitage with four each, Farrell with two and Shenango Township with one. Pymatuning Township also had two incidents, while Greenville and Stoneboro each had one.

"I don't want to minimize the importance of these particular times when there were not ambulances available," said McGonigle, who added that his company answered 6,000 ambulance and 3,200 ambulette calls in 2002. "However, from a percentage perspective it's not bad. And if there's a true emergency, we will pull a car off a nonemergency call and put it on the emergency. The emergencies certainly take precedence."

Thompson said he wasn't looking to find fault or place blame and realizes it's impossible to completely ensure that ambulances are available for every situation. But he and Seamans believe the problem can no longer be ignored.

"Unless someone complained, the mayors or township supervisors may not know the problem even exists," Seamans said. "But when Jim brought it to me I was shocked. I was thinking, 'What if that was one of my relatives?' What we're going to do I cannot answer, but we have to do something."

Further complicating the mix, Thompson said, is that Brookfield Fire Department advised the local ambulance companies that as of March 1 it could no longer regularly provide services across the border.

Thompson said Brookfield, which responded to 13 of the 27 non-covered incidents in Mercer County during that time period, is not licensed as a Pennsylvania service and it's "not appropriate for them to be over here on a regular basis."

Brookfield can still respond in the event of a major emergency, he added, but it can't provide service in Pennsylvania on a regular basis without obtaining a state license.

"With the numbers we've had over the three months, we're really pushing the envelope," Thompson said. "And we need to get a better understanding of the situation. We just don't know all the answers, but we certainly got off to a good start."

That start, he added, came earlier this week when Thompson, representatives from the health department and the ambulance companies met. Thompson said the reason for the meeting was to try to get all of the organizations on the same page and to brainstorm for ideas on how to solve the problem.

Thompson said the group tried to identify patterns in call surges, or multiple calls in a short time period. They also looked at out-of-town nonemergency transports and for ways to promote better communication among the ambulance services.

"I don't know if we have good answers, but we have to be aware enough to say there's a problem," Thompson said, adding that there will be ongoing communication among all the interested parties as they begin to build data on the situation.

"We've developed forms so that if it happens now, we want to know what happened an hour before and an hour after so we can begin to recognize what the problems might be," he said.

Thompson, who said ambulance shortages aren't unique to Mercer County, noted that the county had "nine ambulance services when the 911 center was opened nine or 10 years ago."

From the ambulance companies' standpoint, Thompson said, he is well aware it's not as simple as their just adding another ambulance.

"Some of the problems are out of the realm of their control," he said. "And once you sit down and start looking at all of these things, it isn't that easy."

McGonigle agreed, although he still contends "the system is working well."

"I think the fact that Brookfield has decided not to cover the valley area has caused this concern," he said. "But in the event we find we're turning down too many calls because we do not have an ambulance available, we will re-evaluate the situation."

You can e-mail Herald Political Writer Jeff Greenburg at jgreenburg@sharonherald.com.

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