Fire Damages Ind. Ambulance Station, Vehicles

A fire at about 7 a.m. Thursday heavily damaged three ambulances and the Sullivan County Ambulance service headquarters and main hub on North Section Street, said Sullivan County Sheriff Clark Cottom.

"The cause of the fire is undetermined, but it appears to have started in the garage bay area. It is a three-bay building with living quarters attached to it," Cottom said Thursday. "It will take many months to recover from this loss. This is going to really stretch ambulance resources, as this was the main hub for county ambulance service. We are very fortunate that this occurred at shift change and no staff members where injured."

An emergency medical technician coming into the ambulance headquarters at shift change discovered the fire, Cottom said. That worker noticed smoke coming out from the eaves of the garage.

The building had two employees inside, one of whom had just awakened. All were able to get out of the building unharmed, Cottom said.

"It appears the fire started in the ambulance bay area, and that area does have vehicles in it. But it is too early to determine whether it was a vehicle or equipment in the garage or something else that started the fire," Cottom said, adding the Indiana Fire Marshal's office has been contacted to conduct an investigation.

The Sullivan County Ambulance service is a county-owned and -operated service. In addition to the three ambulances heavily damaged in the fire, the department has two ambulances stationed in Carlisle, Cottom said. That means only two of the county's five ambulances are now operational, the sheriff said.

The city of Sullivan has an ambulance, and a fire department in Farmersburg has an ambulance, which may be able to help with ambulance service temporarily, Cottom said.

"Obviously this will tap resources in the county by losing the ambulance headquarters and three ambulances, which are very busy and also provide non-emergency transport to the Sullivan County Hospital," the sheriff said.

The ambulance building was constructed in 1999. In addition to housing ambulances and emergency response personnel, the building served as the ambulance service's billing office and headquarters, Cottom said.

Reporter Howard Greninger can be reached 812-231-4204 or [email protected]. Follow on Twitter@TribStarHoward.

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