AES funding helps Huntingburg add two emergency vehicles

Huntingburg will add two emergency vehicles with funding from AES, giving the fire department a new medical response truck and a pumper truck that officials say will strengthen both medical calls and fire suppression.

Fire Chief Donnie Heim brought the requests before the Huntingburg Board of Public Works and Safety during its regular meeting Thursday. The move matters because Huntingburg’s fire department no longer responds only to fires. Its mission now includes emergency medical services and an all-hazard approach, meaning the department needs equipment that can handle accidents, medical calls, structure fires and other incidents without waiting on help from farther away.

The city’s current apparatus list shows why the upgrade is significant. Huntingburg already operates Engine 733, a 2019 International MV607 and 2020 E-One pumper rated at 1,500 gallons per minute with a 1,000-gallon tank. It also has Engine 732, a 1992 Ford L9000 and E-One pumper rated at 1,250 gallons per minute with a 1,000-gallon tank. Rescue 739 is a 1998 Ford E-350 and 1999 AEV rescue-ambulance used to support medical emergencies. The city’s equipment information also says Truck 739 was purchased and reconditioned by the Huntingburg Volunteer Fire Department for medical emergencies.

For Huntingburg residents, the result is more than a fleet addition. A newer medical response truck can help the department answer quick medical runs more efficiently, while the pumper truck can give firefighters another frontline tool when fire conditions demand immediate water supply and suppression. In practical terms, the new vehicles are meant to close response gaps that can matter in a city the size of Huntingburg, where minutes count and specialized apparatus can keep crews from stretching existing equipment too thin.

The Board of Public Works and Safety meets at City Hall on the first Thursday of each month at 8:30 a.m. Members include Mayor Neil Elkins, Kerry Blessinger, Keith Souders, Dan Fitch and Dustin Schmett. Their role in hearing the request underscored the city’s responsibility to weigh public-safety needs against budget limits, while AES’s funding helped offset the cost of equipment the city might otherwise have had to absorb on its own.

Huntingburg Fire Department, headquartered at 501 E. 1st St., has served the community since 1885. Heim became Huntingburg’s first full-time fire chief in September 2022, and the AES-backed purchases fit into a longer effort to modernize the department’s response capacity for the city and the area it protects.