Fire departments wait months for ambulance engine repairs
HINGHAM - "Supply chain issues" are still causing chronic headaches and some public safety concerns for first responders along the South Shore - and beyond.
"No one wants to have multiple vehicles that are broken. It's expensive to keep on repairing these trucks and we have a commitment to provide service to the community," said Hingham Fire Chief Steve Murphy.
Hingham Fire owns four ambulances: two new and two old backups. Those older 2013 trucks, with many miles, are now back on the road - after the engine failed on one of their new Ford F-550s. It's still under warranty but there's no fix in sight.
"The 2019 that we paid $350,000 for in 2019 is sitting parked in the station for the last two to three months," Murphy said.
And Hingham isn't alone in their frustration. Hull Fire was without one of their ambulances twice for months at a time because of the same issue, and Abington Fire is still waiting for a 2019 Ford engine.
Fully functioning vehicles are essential - when every minute matters. Last year in Hingham, firefighters responded to well over 5300 calls. Seventy percent of those involved transporting a patient to the hospital.
"We also recently had to borrow an ambulance; the 2021 was working fine but the two older trucks were broken as well. We had one ambulance working out of our four. We had to borrow an ambulance for about a week out of Cohasset," the chief explained.
WBZ asked Ford for a statement or some timeline on the replacement engines for these emergency vehicles. We're still waiting for a response.