Public Safety

Dedicated Service

Crawfordsville EMS marks 50 years

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Crawfordsville Emergency Services reached a milestone this month.

On Jan. 1, the EMS department marked 50 years of service to the community.

Crawfordsville Mayor Todd Barton, Fire Chief Scott Busenbark, Deputy Fire Chief Paul Miller and one of the department’s original first responders, Mike Kadinger, reminisced about its history.

Before Crawfordsville had its own EMS department, private agencies, including funeral companies, responded to medical emergencies alongside firefighters.

In 1974, the State of Indiana began regulating responses to emergency calls and established the Emergency Medical Services Commission.

Kadinger, a retired firefighter and veteran, was one of the first six members of Crawfordsville’s EMS department in 1975.

When Kadinger started with the department it had two emergency vehicles but only one cot.

“First run we had, we didn’t even have uniforms,” Kadinger recalled.

Prior to the establishment of the EMS department, firefighters received minimal medical training and responded to such emergencies as best they could. As early as 1935, the CFD provided emergency medical services and purchased a pulmotor, a mechanical device that pumped oxygen in and out of the lungs.

Even though Crawfordsville established the EMS department in 1975, and the EMTs worked in the same building as the CFD, they were considered a separate entity from the fire department.

Integration of emergency services and the fire department didn’t begin until the mid-1990s. Emergency Medical Technicians, or EMTs, were considered regular civilians and that created some hostility between them and the firefighters.

Barton, who served as a firefighter and paramedic for 26 years before he was elected mayor, said the animosity between the EMS and fire departments took two generations to settle.

EMS was like the step-child of the fire department.

“Bob Oliver was chief when we started, and each shift had their food bill and ate together,” Kadinger said. “So each shift got to vote whether the two of us on each shift got to eat with them. And we were turned down three times.”

Kadinger also recalled that EMTs dare not call for firefighters to aid them during calls ­— they wouldn’t show. Most of the time police officers were their backup.

“Well, there were times when we had a bad patient, we’d have a police officer drive the
ambulance,” Kadinger said. “And you do not want a police officer driving the ambulance.”

Barton and Busenbark both remember the tension between EMS and the firefighters.

“We were hired into the ambulance service as civilians. And you were, it was made very clear that you were not one of them,” Barton said.

“Yeah, I remember the rift about the T-shirts,” Busenbark said. “We wore the fire department T-shirt, and they were trying to get us to go to just wearing white T-shirts.”

“They were going to make us wear white, wouldn’t let us wear fire department T-shirts because we weren’t firefighters,” Barton added.

It wasn’t until the 1990s’ when Dennis Weir became the fire chief that things began to change for the EMS department. Members of the EMS department were no longer considered civilians and firefighters had to become trained as EMTs as well as firefighters. This also is when paramedics were introduced into the department.

The cross training helped Crawfordsville became the first fire department in the state to be certified to provide ambulance services.

Training also began to improve.

Kadinger had all of 20 hours of training before he went out on his first emergency call, and most of his training was done in a high school.

Today, Miller said it takes nearly 16 months of initial training to become an EMT, and training is done in-house at the fire department. Once that training is done, the EMT will have to go through medic training, which is roughly 1,400 hours.

Miller believes Crawfordsville’s EMS department is one of the more progressive agencies in the country.

Barton agrees, but believes emergency services in Crawfordsville have always been ahead of the game. Before the department was established the fire department had an iron lung, which even the hospital didn’t have at the time.

On Jan. 1, 2023, the CFD began providing emergency medical services countywide. CFD ambulances now respond to all 911 EMS calls in the county, supplementing the initial response by the community fire departments and emergency medical responders in each of the rural townships and towns in the county.

The department has more than 40 licensed paramedics and operates six paramedic ambulances, five advanced life support non-transport vehicles, three command vehicles, a mass casualty response trailer, a heavy rescue unit, four fire engines with basic life support capabilities and two boats. CFD responds to more than 4,500 runs per year.

As Crawfordsville celebrates 50 years of dedicated emergency medical services, it’s clear how far the department has come — from humble beginnings with minimal equipment and training to becoming a model of progressive and integrated emergency care.

This anniversary not only honors the pioneers like Kadinger, Dick Gardner, Bob Frees, John Runge, Glenn Foye and Weir, who laid the foundation, but also reflects the commitment of the community and leadership in pushing forward.


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