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Supply Chain Issues Make Niles Firefighters Wait For New Ambulance, Engine

2015 Front Line Ambulance Dispatched To 24,000 Calls; 1998 Reserve Engine To Be Replaced In 2023, 2024


Niles Fire Department’s 1992 Pierce Station No. 2 reserve engine is expected to be replaced in 2024. (Niles Fire Dept. photo)

Niles firefighters are waiting on two new vehicles — an ambulance and a fire engine — which, because of supply chain issues, are not expected to arrive until the spring of 2023 and 2024 respectively.

Those issues, including a computer chip shortage, are delaying the building and delivery of both the new ambulance and, more severely, the new engine.

The new advance life support (ALS) ambulance, to be assembled by Foster Coach company, has a cost not to exceed $455,000 and is not expected to be delivered until May, “in a perfect world,” Niles Fire Chief Marty Feld said.

Feld said the cost of the new ambulance is running about $100,000 more than what was initially budgeted for the vehicle. 

The new custom-built ambulance would replace Station No. 3’s 2015 front line ambulance, which has logged more than 100,000 miles and has been dispatched to answer about 24,000 calls, Feld said.

Feld said he discussed requesting a bid waiver to obtain a chassis for the ambulance with members of the village’s finance committee at their Aug. 3 meeting, but said at the Tuesday, Aug. 23 village board meeting that Foster Coach was able to obtain a chassis. Feld said the contract through the Northwest Municipal Conference joint purchasing agreement, which is soon expected to be considered by village trustees, could proceed without requesting a bid waiver.

One feature of the new ambulance would be a new liquid spring suspension system. Feld said that newer technology, and smoother ride, would allow paramedics to better treat patients in the ambulance while in transit.

Once the new front line ambulance comes in, the existing 2015 ambulance would become a reserve ambulance used as a backup when a front line ambulance is out for repair or otherwise unavailable, Feld said.

The most recent ambulance purchased by the fire department was a 2019 vehicle assigned to Fire Station No. 2. That ambulance is two feet longer than what is being ordered for Station No. 3, which would arrive in May of next year.

Niles Fire Department’s 1992 Pierce reserve fire engine at Station No. 2, is expected to be replaced in 2024. (Niles Fire Dept. photo)

In May of this year, Feld said the fire department ordered a new Pearson Enforcerer Fire Engine, for Fire Station No. 2, which he said might not be delivered until May 2024 at a cost of about $900,000.

The new fire engine would replace a 1992 reserve engine, which is not designed to today’s ALS standards. ALS fire engines do not transport patients, but are equipped to treat patients until they are able to be transported by ambulance.

Feld said supply chain issues are more difficult for the engine than they are for the ambulance, as the engine has more components that are proving difficult to obtain.

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