CAIRO AMBULANCE TO END ITS OPERATION

CAIRO, Ill. -- Cairo residents may be in a medical bind without the benefit of an ambulance service in the city.

Cairo Independent Ambulance Service shut down its operation at 8 a.m. Thursday. The service's eight employees are now looking for other jobs.

The Alexander County Ambulance Service, about 25 miles away in Olive Branch, is the closest available ambulance service.

"We have served the area and county for the last seven years without a penny from the city or county," said Irwin Faulkner, president of the ambulance service board of directors.

"It's gotten to the point that we can't continue," he said. The board has asked for financial assistance from both the city and county. However, no funds have been made available.

"Every time we fire up an ambulance it costs money," he said.

Some fund-raising efforts were attempted, but not enough money was raised to keep the business open, Faulkner said.

The Alexander County Board of Commissioners began operating the county-sponsored ambulance service again in 1994. It had closed two years earlier.

"During those two years, we took care of the entire county and the county board of commissioners refused to give us any tax money although they were still collecting it," Faulkner said.

County commissioners could not be reached for comment.

In 1987, the county's ambulance service based in Cairo was moved to Olive Branch. In response to the move, Cairo citizens formed the Cairo Independent Ambulance Service.

When the county ambulance service went out of business in 1992, the Cairo ambulance serviced the entire county.

"We don't want this to happen, but unless a miracle occurs, we can't operate," Faulkner said. "We want to continue because the citizens of the county need it."

More than half the customers served by the Cairo Independent Ambulance Service are assisted through public aid, Faulkner said.

The service has answered about 200 calls, with an average of 45 calls a month. And because there is no hospital in Cairo, patients are often transferred to Cape Girardeau.

Both St. Francis Medical Center and Southeast Hospital will answer ambulance calls through their air services.

Both air ambulance services respond to about four calls from the Cairo area each month.

Dispatchers at Southeast said the calls may increase, but the helicopter only responds to calls made by ambulance services, not private individuals.