Retired ambulance headed to Ukraine
Old Naperville vehicle was planned to be given to Cancun
An ambulance Naperville tried to give to its sister city in Cancun, Mexico, is now en route to war-torn Ukraine.
Naperville Fire Chief Mark Puknaitis said city switched gears after the resort city failed to pick up the vehicle, which has been sitting in the city’s public works garage for a year and a half.
Cancun fire officials were expected to take delivery of the 2010 International MedTec series 4300 ambulance in December 2020.
The ambulance was purchased in October 2009 and had been in use for seven years at Fire Station 10 on 95th Street, just west of Route 59, before becoming a reserve vehicle four years ago. It was driven for 51,161 miles and had 4,124 engine hours.
As of this month, Cancun still hadn’t retrieved the ambulance. Delays were blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic and a change in the local government in Mexico, Puknaitis said.
Recently, he was approached by the Rotary Club of Naperville asking if the city had any ambulances to donate to Ukraine, he said.
“All of a sudden we have an opportunity through the Rotarians and through the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America that we could donate this ambulance to a cause that could be used right now for a greater good,” Puknaitis said.
The Rotary Club made it very easy to send Naperville’s ambulance to Ukraine along with four similar emergency vehicles, he said. Transportation costs are being handled by the club.
“It’s going to go to use almost immediately because they have a shortage of ambulances out there,” Puknaitis said.
This spring Rotary Club International packed two cargo planes in Chicago with medical equipment bound for Europe, where members unload the supplies and get them to Ukraine.
Naperville’s ambulance is equipped with everything the department planned to send to Cancun, including fire gear, helmets, gloves, air tanks, air bottles and medical equipment.
Puknaitis said it is his hope his department will have another ambulance available when Cancun finally is able to accept and retrieve donations.
Naperville is in the process of replacing its 2013 International MedTec ambulance, which is used by the fire department’s operations division to provide patient care and transport 24 hours per day for medical emergency calls and special events.
The Naperville City Council in May authorized ordering a 2024 Horton ambulance on a Freightliner chassis for $318,563 on the Suburban Purchasing Cooperative through Foster Coach Sales Inc.
Public Works Director Richard Dublinski, speaking in a memo to the council, said the plan is to place the order this year with payment and delivery in 2023. It takes 12 to 18 months to manufacture an ambulance.
The council typically sign offs on the donation of equipment to other departments. In the past, it has authorized the donation of a ladder truck and an ambulance to Cancun.