An ambulance crew and the patient escaped injury when the vehicle caught fire.
“The engine started smoking, and they pulled over. And quickly, the engine caught on fire. Luckily, they were able to extricate the patient and grab their equipment and move it off the rig," Hawaii Chief Kazuo Todd told KHON2.
The chief added that it’s not the age of the ambulances that’s the issue. It's the wear and tear of running 24 hours a day. The department has 16 ambulances that respond to incidents over 4,000 miles across the island.
On average, an ambulance on the Big Island can rack up 90,000 a year.
“It’s an average turnover of three to five years before these ambulances are hitting their peak life and need to be replaced. It really means that we need to replace about four ambulances a year or so,” Todd said.
Hawaii Fire Fighters Association President Bobby Lee told reporters: “It’s always a concern when we see an ambulance catches fire or any public safety vehicle catch fire."
The cause remains under investigation.
