Ketchikan Gateway Borough gets $347,000 to replace a South Tongass ambulance

The South Tongass Volunteer Fire Department lost both of its ambulances, two fire engines and a rescue truck when its own station burned in April 2024. For the two and a half years since, it has been running an 18-year-old ambulance handed down from the City of Valdez.

A federal grant will finally replace it. The Ketchikan Gateway Borough is getting $347,000 to buy one ambulance and one advanced cardiac monitor and defibrillator, with no local match required. The award description says the Valdez rig is reaching the end of its service life and has become harder to service and to find parts for.

The fire started around 2 am on April 9, 2024, and was out by 4:30. Crews worked out of the City of Ketchikan's Fire Station One afterward, and fire and EMS calls in the area were covered through mutual aid while the station was unusable. A new ladder truck arrived for South Tongass last year.

The money is congressionally directed spending, an earmark a member of Congress writes into an appropriations bill for a named project. The record does not say which member asked for it.

The borough plans to buy both items through existing cooperative purchasing contracts. The award record describes the expected result as "a fully equipped, service-ready ambulance" that returns the department to full operational strength.

The award period starts Sept. 30. Nothing has been spent yet, and neither the borough nor the fire department has said how long a new ambulance takes to arrive.