70 Years of EMS

On January 21, 1948 our first ambulance was placed in service.  It was a 1948 Cadillac Meteor ambulance.  The $6,155 ambulance was purchased by the Kiwanis Club of Reisterstown and donated to the Reisterstown Volunteer Fire Company.

The process of purchasing the ambulance began on December 31, 1945 when a $100 deposit was placed on the ambulance.  There was a high demand for post war era ambulances because they had not been manufactured since 1942.  The delivery was also complicated by post war strikes at GM.

The ambulance was kept at J. Edwin Eline’s garage until construction on our current building was completed later in the year.  The ambulance handled 189 calls in 1948.