Big Rock, Elburn, Kaneville fire departments combine to provide emergency services to Kaneland campus

by Lynn Meredith

            With Elburn close to three miles from the Kaneland High School,  Middle School and District office campus you might assume that if the school needed an ambulance, the Elburn Town and Countryside Fire Department would respond. You would be wrong.

            The ambulance comes from Big Rock, eight miles from the school and south of a railroad track. Residents from the near-by subdivisions one mile west of the school say that's too long to wait for an ambulance. They want parents to know that Big Rock, not Elburn, covers the school.

            “If I had not known CPR, my husband would not have survived,” area resident Kathy Heinrick said at the June School Board meeting. “Are parents aware that it takes from 14 to 16 minutes for an ambulance?”

            Heinrick's husband suffered a heart attack on March 24. The couple lives in the subdivision west of Kaneland. When Heinrick called the Elburn ambulance, she was told that she needed to call the Big Rock Fire Department instead. It was 16 minutes before the ambulance arrived.

            “Nobody told us. How those decisions are made, we don't know,” said Bert Brown, a 30-year resident of the subdivision who also needed an ambulance and was informed that Big Rock, not Elburn, covered their area.

            Brown and Heinrick are looking for ways to reconsider the coverage. They question the way it came about and how it can be changed.

            “What if the school gets hit by a tornado? The first response is 11 miles away,” Brown said.

            The Kaneville Fire Department provides fire coverage for Kaneland and the nearby subdivision. It had contracted with Elburn to provide ambulance service. When the cost became too much for the small department, the School District contracted with Big Rock.

            “The change was made four or five years ago. We had a public meeting. Something had to be done right away. It was in the papers,” Kaneville Fire Chief Dave Sigmund said.

            “Kaneville is the first responder. We have basic life support capabilities. We just can't transport,” Sigmund said.

            He said that Elburn, Big Rock and Kaneville have a mutual aid system. They keep in contact with each other in the event of a train, which could disrupt the response time. Sigmund said that Elburn and Big Rock are able to respond within one minute of each other. If Big Rock has a train, it would call Elburn.

            “Big Rock is staffed 24 hours a day,” Sigmund said. “We're just looking for the best service for them.”

            Kaneville, even with three-quarters of the staff EMT-certified, is an all-volunteer department.