The Killingworth Ambulance Association’s Open House was one for the ages – that is, if you’re counting from 4 to 90.

That’s the range in age of those who joined KAA techs Sunday to welcome their new ambulance after a prolonged three-year wait. The vehicle was delivered last Friday, and, if all goes according to plan, could be in service as early as this Thursday evening.

“Finally,” said one visitor. “It’s about time.”

But that’s why the KAA wanted to celebrate with a three-hour event that attracted an estimated 40-50 individuals. Among them was 4-year-old Jackson Callahan who, with mother Paige, was one of the first arrivals. The two showed up shortly after noon, with Mom walking her son around the vehicle and asking what he liked best.

“The tires,” he said.

The reason?

“They’re shiny and black,” he answered.

Then there was former EMT and board member Don McDougall. His response contrasted with Jackson’s. Then again, so did his age. McDougall turns 91 this year. He not only was one of the first to join the KAA when it started in 1971 – an era when the town’s ambulance was a used 1964 Cadillac bought with $3,000 in borrowed money; he was the second original member to see the new ambulance in three days.

Betsy Harris was the first, shortly after it arrived Friday.

“This is a significant improvement,” McDougall said, as he toured the outside of the rig, “even over the one we had the last few years.”

Then he was helped into the cab and settled in the drivers’ seat.

“Very impressive,” he said, grabbing the steering wheel. “What stands out to me are the adjustable pedals. That’s going to help someone with short legs. I like the backup camera, too. The other one didn’t have that. You had to rely on mirrors and someone helping you. I had to come by and see this.”

The event was as much a celebration of the town as it was the KAA’s newest acquisition. Thanks in part to annual contributions from donors, no fundraising effort was needed to pay for a vehicle that cost $350,000. Neither was one necessary for a $70,000 power-LOAD, equipment that lifts and lowers the ambulance stretcher. A contribution from the town paid for that.

A contribution from a town resident helped with Sunday’s event, too. In addition to coffee, water, juice and donuts provided by the KAA, the Bread Girl – a.k.a., Eileen Unger – donated soft pretzels and chocolate chunk cookies, all of which were gone by the 3 p.m. closing.

“She was excited to help as soon as I contacted her,” said KAA president Dan O’Sullivan.

Techs who hadn’t viewed the ambulance prior to this weekend were excited, too. But they were just as relieved, and why not? It took months … no, years … for it to arrive. In the end, however, all seemed satisfied. Visitors and EMTs were unanimous in their praise, diverging only when it came to the vehicle’s color. Where some preferred the red of the current truck, others opted for white – the color of its successor. Otherwise, all liked what they saw:

— “A great ambulance,” said 15-year-old Sean Link, who plans on taking an EMT course this fall. “Definitely an upgrade from the last one we had. The people the KAA provides care to are going to like it, as well as those who work on it. I think it’s a great buy.”

— “This is nice for the community,” said Jeff LaConte, joined by wife Sherry and daughter Grace, an HKHS senior interested in nursing.

— “I’m excited,” said Paige Callahan, “and I think it’s great. The volunteers work hard, and it’s nice to have new equipment for everybody else in town.”

Some of those who stopped by asked to see the current ambulance, stored within one of two bays at the KAA’s headquarters. Its dimensions are nearly identical to its successor, with height the only difference. The new ambulance is four inches higher. However, as soon as it passes state inspection – presumably this week – it replaces the other in the garage and on the road … which should please Jackson Callahan.

“I like it better,” he said.

No need to ask why.

“Because the tires are shiny,” he said.

Case closed.

(Pictured above, L-R: Mike Haaga, Dan O’Sullivan and Matt Hayes)

That didn’t take long.

While over three years passed before the Killingworth Ambulance Association had its first glimpse of a new ambulance, it took only minutes for the vehicle to pass inspection. In fact, approval happened shortly after the ambulance pulled into in the KAA parking lot Friday at 11:57 a.m., though it didn’t come from the state of Connecticut.

It came from Betsy Harris.

Heard of her? You should. She and her late husband, Red, joined the KAA as EMTs in the early 1970s when it first began. Those were the days when the ambulance was a 1964 Cadillac with 13,000 miles on it … when it was purchased from a dealer in Fairfield County for $3,000 … when gas was 35 cents a gallon … and when Killingworth EMTs knew little beyond how to administer CPR and first aid.

In other words, they were unlike anything in front of Betsy Harris Friday.

But that’s why she pulled into the KAA parking lot. She knew a new ambulance was expected sometime soon, and she wanted to see it. So, when she spotted it as she drove by on Route 81, she thought she’d take a closer look.

“Oh, my gosh,” she gushed as she peered into the cab. “This is amazing.”

The vehicle bears little resemblance to its predecessor, parked nearby in one of the two KAA bays. Where one is white, the other is red. One is a Ford; the other is a Dodge. One has liquid spring suspension; the other has air. One has a rear-view camera; the other does not. One has a steering sensor; the other …

I think you get the idea.

Granted, aside from four more inches of head room in the cabin, the inside appears similar. But the new ambulance offers so many updates – as it should for a $350,000 price tag – that the seven techs who showed up Friday for its arrival were captivated, remaining on the scene for over two hours afterward.

“It drives awesome,” Matt Hayes told them. “This is a great truck.”

Hayes should know. He’s the Eastford Fire and Rescue Sales manager who drove the vehicle an hour-and-a-half Friday from where it was serviced and answered a litany of questions from KAA president Dan O’Sullivan and chief of service Mike Haaga, the first to meet him when he arrived. But it was also Hayes who invited Betsy Harris and Jim McDonald, another passerby who stopped in, to take a closer look if they wanted to see the inside of the vehicle.

Harris did.

“It’s so different from anything we had,” she said. “When we started, we had the Cadillac with a jump seat. The only one who was secured was on the stretcher.

“I remember one of the first calls we had when I was riding with Walt Albrecht. We had three patients who’d been in an accident. One was a man, and two were women. But they’d run into a wall on Route 81 where La Foresta is today, and one woman was somewhat injured.

“So she got the stretcher. The man got the front seat with Walt, who was driving, and the other lady got my seat. I was just loose in the back as we went to Middlesex (Hospital).

“Then the man says to me, ‘Give her morphine,’ and I said, ‘All I can do is give her a Band-Aid, not morphine. That was all you could do in those days. Luckily, we didn’t have any major trauma.”

They do now. The KAA last year responded to 532 emergency calls and a record 574 in 2023, where there were fewer than 100 annually way back when. Some of today’s responses require heavy lifting, as Harris discovered when Hayes demonstrated a power-LOAD – equipment that can lift and lower a stretcher and is so vital to emergency services that it costs $70,000, with the town paying the bill.

Suffice it to say, there was nothing like that 50 years ago.

“I remember once we had patient who was sort of out it,” Harris said. “My husband and I were a team, and when we got to the hospital, the (patient) says, ‘You can’t lift me!’ And I told him, ‘How do you think you got in here?’ We had a stretcher, but we had to lift it by hand.”

“Not anymore,” said Hayes, as he demonstrated the power-LOAD. “This can handle 800 pounds with the push of a button.”

Harris shook her head in disbelief.

“I’m amazed,” she said.

Harris spent 10 years in the KAA. McDonald spent 20 and is currently a member of the Killingworth Volunteer Fire Company. Each spent 10-15 minutes circling the KAA’s latest acquisition, but that’s all it took to give it their endorsements before driving away.

And they weren’t alone.

“This is a beautiful truck,” said Hayes. “It’s got a lot of features. With the design that was put together, it’s going to function really well for everyone. And the ride? It’s like night and day from the other truck. Trust me. I worked on the other one, so I know. I don’t think there’s anything that will be an issue with this at all.”

(Pictured above, L-R: James Fretz, Dan O’Sullivan and Chris Bowen)

If you think you’ve heard something about the Killingworth Ambulance Association replacing its current ambulance with a new one, you probably have. The KAA kept announcing it in its last three annual donation letters – or, ever since completing paper work for a new vehicle in February, 2022. But it never said when that truck would arrive, and now we know why.

It had no idea.

Three years ago, it was warned that a shortage of parts could delay delivery for up to 77 weeks … or, about a year-and-half. Instead, it wasn’t until last week that the vehicle was driven from North Carolina to Eastford, Ct., where it will be outfitted before its delivery to Killingworth by the end of this month.

Nobody is certain when it will be put into service, but most expect it to be sometime in early April, which means … you guessed it … more waiting. Nothing new there. By now, the KAA is inured to delays. Once, it anticipated having the ambulance by last October — that is, until Hurricane Hazel ravaged North Carolina and pushed delivery to December … then February … and now this month. So sitting still for another three weeks shouldn’t be a problem, right?

Wrong. Maybe heaven can wait, but the KAA couldn’t.

That’s why KAA president Dan O’Sullivan and board member James Fretz jumped into O’Sullivan’s Toyota SUV Monday morning to make the 70-minute drive to Eastford. They were eager to see what they waited three years to drive. However, both were as apprehensive as they were excited, with Fretz openly admitting he was “nervous” shortly after O’Sullivan pulled up at the Eastford Fire and Rescue Sales, a dealer that’s serviced the current ambulance since its purchase in 2011.

“You’re nervous because all you have are drawings,” he said later. “You more worried about the graphics than anything, and you don’t want to look at it and say, ‘Oh, my gosh, this isn’t what I expected.’ ”

Except it was.

A smart man once said that “a picture is worth a thousand words, but a smile is worth a million.” He must have been talking about O’Sullivan and Fretz as the two turned a corner inside the Eastford garage and first saw the ambulance with its hood raised toward the ceiling, as Chris Bowen, president of Eastford Fire and Rescue, stood before them.

“I love this truck,” Bowen said, waving to his visitors to join him.

It’s easy to see why. The vehicle is white, not red, like the current ambulance. It’s the same size (though its cabin has four more inches of head room) but not the same make (a Ford, not a Dodge), has colorful blue graphics that wrap around its body and features a raft of enhancements that include bright emergency lights, a hydraulic suspension system, versatile safety belts and improved storage.
Best of all, it’s a smoother and safer ride.

Naturally, all that comes at a price. And, for the new ambulance, that figure is $350,000, with an extra $70,000 for a stretcher and power load paid by the town.

“So,” Bowen was asked, “how much better would you say this ambulance is than the one the KAA currently has?”

“Exponentially,” he replied. “Particularly for safety. And that’s huge.”

He should know. After all, he made the 11-hour drive last week from the factory in Jefferson, N.C., to Eastford before leading O’Sullivan and Fretz on an extensive two-hour tour. It started in the cabin, where the layout is nearly identical to the current ambulance — only with updated equipment, plugs and, yes, a digital clock instead of a battery operated one. Then it moved to the cab where O’Sullivan and Fretz were shown how to operate sirens as well as a suspension system that adjusts to weight distribution. Finally, the group walked to the outside of the truck, with Bowen operating an automatic lift to hoist a heavy oxygen cylinder – an enormous improvement from what the KAA has now.

“The biggest difference affecting patients,” said O’Sullivan, “is that it’s going to be a much smoother ride than the old one. Other than that, a lot of things aren’t really going to affect them. We’re going to have the same equipment on board, and the box layout is basically the same. But the difference will be how the truck handles and the comfort of patients.”

That’s a month away. In the meantime, radios must be installed, a state inspection cleared and the vehicle registered. For the moment, all you need to know about the KAA’s latest purchase is this: While O’Sullivan and Fretz were more than satisfied with their visit, it was Bowen who paid the vehicle its highest compliment. In business since 1992, he’s serviced what he estimated as “hundreds” of ambulances from Connecticut, Rhode Island and New York, yet was bowled over by Killingworth’s latest acquisition.

“When I came down to the factory (in North Carolina) and saw it,” he said, “it was like … Boom! … look at this truck! You got a good one!”

So dazzled was Bowen that he couldn’t wait to tell others, including the ambulance service in Redding. He didn’t divulge what he said, but he didn’t need to. All he mentioned was that the Redding Fire and EMS Company was so interested in the ambulance that it wanted to to see it immediately. Sound familiar? Anyway, shortly before O’Sullivan and Fretz departed for Killingworth, Bowen asked and received permission to drive the vehicle there this week.

“They’re all giddy about this truck,” he said.

O’Sullivan and Fretz might be, too, if they hadn’t waited this long. Nevertheless, it’s safe to say they liked what they saw. They hoped for the best, and their wishes were realized – so much so that when asked if the ambulance met or exceeded their expectations, each nodded.

Unofficially, it passed its first inspection.

“We made a lot of good choices in the design,” O’Sullivan said, “and it came together very nicely. I think it met our hopes. While a world-wide pandemic and natural disaster made us wait longer than we expected, we now have a vehicle that will serve the town well for the next decade or more.”

That’s one way of putting it. For Fretz, however, he responded with a deep breath before exhaling. Remember, he wasn’t sure what to expect prior to Monday’s visit, admitting to feeling “nervous” as he entered the garage. But that anxiety disappeared the moment he came face-to-face with a vehicle he could only imagine the past three years.

“It was a relief seeing it,” he said as he walked away, “and knowing it’s something we all can be proud of.”