Joliet donates ambulances to help 2 Cook County fire departments

The Joliet Fire Department donated three ambulances to two Chicago south suburbs to help offset the high costs of buying new vehicles as they try to rebuild their emergency medical services.

A ceremony was held Tuesday at the Joliet Fire Department for the donation of two ambulances to Ford Heights and one ambulance to Robbins. Fire officials from those towns visited Joliet’s fire department near the downtown area to receive their new ambulances.

“With these departments, they lost their [emergency medical services], so they’re trying to start from the beginning. And a new ambulance now is $400,000, with nothing on it,” said Joliet Fire Chief Jeff Carey.

In September, city officials in the north suburb of Evanston recently approved spending close to $500,000 on a new ambulance for their fire department.

Carey said one of the fire departments from Ford Heights and Robbins had reached out to them after they heard Joliet was receiving new ambulances.

“[They asked] if we would consider donating because we find out they were losing their EMS provider in that area and they were going to have to try to start their own. It’s so costly,” Carey said.

Carey said his department asked the Joliet City Council and they agreed the ambulance donations would be a “great way” to help neighboring communities that are “trying to provide their community with the EMS-level service that we have.”

Although the ambulances were donated, fire officials with Ford Heights and Robbins were willing to pay $1 for each of the ambulances.

The three ambulances date back to 2002 and 1997, according to a news release from Joliet city spokeswoman Rosemaria DiBenedetto. The vehicles routinely receive safety inspections.

Carey said that because the city has a great fleet service department, the mechanics are able to keep ambulances running longer than normal.

The fire department will use ambulances until they’re at the “end of life” stage and the resale value is only a “couple thousand dollars, if that,” he said.

“We use them so long by the time we get rid of them, they’re pretty much worthless,” Carey said.

Carey said many areas have lost their private emergency medical services provider and fire departments have to bring those services “in-house.”

“For a while it was going private. Now everything has gotten so expensive, it’s coming back into the fire service a little more,” Carey said.

Ford Heights Deputy Fire Chief Nicholas Drake said the ambulance donations will be a “big help for us.”

“As of right now, we’re privatized because we couldn’t do our EMS and keep up with it,” Drake said. “Now that we are coming up with the funding and growing a little bit with the commercial side in the area, we’re able to now explore and get this going again for us.”

The populations of Ford Heights and Robbins have declined over the years.

In Ford Heights, the population declined from 2,763 residents in 2010 to 1,813 residents in 2020, according to census figures. In Robbins, the population declined from 4,804 residents to 4,629 residents in the same time period.

Drake said providing emergency medical services goes beyond “just having the equipment.”

“It’s a lot of funding that goes into it that we don’t receive as much or make in tax dollars,” Drake said.

Robbins Deputy Fire Chief Chris Bollinger said the donated ambulance will help them “service our residents to the best of our ability.”

“We appreciate the City of Joliet, the Joliet Fire Department and everything that they’re doing for us,” Bollinger said.