Indiana Fire Department Adds Fourth Ambulance to Tackle Surging EMS Demand

After a surge in ambulance calls, Indiana’s Terre Haute Fire Department (THFD) has added a long-needed fourth unit. Known as MEDIC 5, the THFD’s new unit went into service on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, from their Station 9 location on 559 West Margaret Avenue.

“This fourth ambulance has been a long time coming,” said THFD Deputy Chief of EMS Operations Diana Luther. “We've known for some time that we needed it. In the early 2000s, our department’s run volume was in the 5,000s. Last year our run volume was 14,692 runs, 80% of which were EMS. Despite more than doubling the volume of trips, we were still running the same number of ambulances (three).”

Doing so much more with just three ambulances put the THFD’s EMS crews under significant strain. “Some of our members were doing 15 to 16 transports a day,” Luther told EMS World. “Since we’ve added this fourth ambulance, the highest run volume we’ve seen per ambulance is 12, with lower numbers now being more common.”

The Terre Haute Fire Department is budgeted for 156 members and currently has 151. The THFD fleet now consists of four ALS 9-1-1 ambulances, six engines, two ladder trucks, a battalion chief, and a support truck. Its territory covers 35 square miles.

What’s pushing the THFD’s annual run total? It’s not population growth. In fact, according to Neilsberg Research, the town’s population has dropped. It was 59,537 in 2020 and then fell to 58,502 in 2023. WorldPopulationReview.com reports Terre Haute’s 2025 population at 58,570.

What is making the difference is a change in patient behavior. “Since COVID in 2020, we have noticed a very rapid increase in patient call volume simply because people are choosing to go to the ER for non-9-1-1 services, rather than their primary care physicians,” Luther said. “As well, we did have a casino open up, so we do have a lot more people coming into Terre Haute. We also have more industrial businesses that have opened here in the last two to three years, so that is boosting runs too.”

Even with a fourth ambulance, the THFD is still facing call response challenges. The department uses a dual-paramedic crew model, at a time when paramedics are in short supply nationwide. “In response to this shortage, when we hire a new member on, we do put them through paramedic school if they are not paramedics,” Luther said. “In fact, we teach an in-house EMT program and then we send our EMTs to one of our local community colleges for their 18-month paramedic program.”

Still, the THFD is seeing a lot of turnover in its ranks due to age. “We're becoming a very young department,” she explained. “Just a couple years ago we were a rather old department, but we have had close to 20 people retire in the last two to three years and we're set to have another eight retire in 2026.”

For Luther, MEDIC 5 isn’t just a new truck — it’s breathing room for a department that’s finally catching up to the demand it serves. “It’s great to be able to improve our service to the community,” she said. “This is something we’ve been needing to do for a very long time.”