By Clark Judge
(July 16, 2025) — If you had driven past the Killingworth Ambulance Association on July 15, 2025, you would have seen its former ambulance sitting in the parking lot, as it has for the past month. But if you drove by again the next day, you might have noticed that it was missing.
So, what happened? The KAA ambulance — or “Old 84” — has left the building, that’s what.
Fourteen years after it was bought and put into service, the red Dodge was officially retired –driven away at 3:00 p.m. on a flat-bed trailer, with Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey as its next stop. Four members of the KAA’s board of directors were there to say goodbye, including three of its most active EMTs — KAA president Dan O’Sullivan, Mary Robbenhaar-Fretz and husband James Fretz.
“It’s the end of an era,” said Mary.
The truck had been out of service since the KAA completed a $350,000 purchase in March for a replacement … but it was never out of sight. First parked at the Killingworth town garage and, later, in front of the KAA’s Route 81 headquarters, it was sold on July 2, 2025 to the highest bidder at an on-line auction site for municipalities and government agencies.
Final bid: $10,100.
“That guy was bidding all the way,” said James Fretz, who handled the sale. “There were two people bidding on it, but the other person dropped out at $10,000.”
As it turns out, selling it was the easy part. Loading it was not. Two drivers who pulled in from Maine took a half-hour to tie it down, inadvertently breaking a fan as they maneuvered the vehicle onto the trailer, before finally driving it off the KAA parking lot and onto Route 81 South.
“So sad to see her go,” said EMT Lisa Anderson on a Facebook post, responding to a video of the ambulance departing. “I spent many hours driving and riding in her. I am happy I said a quiet goodbye to her at (the) station last night.”
Her sentiments were echoed by those who watched it leave for the last time, though Fretz confessed, “It was time.” The truck, which was scheduled to be replaced in 2022, spent parts of the past three years in auto shops, serviced for repairs that became increasingly frequent. In fact, where once it appeared headed to Eastford — the site of those repairs — the owner of the garage later backed off, saying he was no longer interested in trying to re-sell it.
“It is sad to see it leave,” said Fretz, “but we’ve spent so much time trying to keep it running.”
“But there are so many memories,” a bystander said.
“True,” said O’Sullivan, “but not all of them good.”
So, now what? Good question. After speaking to someone involved in the transaction, Fretz said it appears the ambulance could be headed for EMS service in New Jersey, though it’s not clear where. His impression was that it was bought so that it could be resold, with one or two services possibly interested. What is clear is that it was no longer needed here, and not just because the KAA has a modern replacement. It doesn’t have the space to house two vehicles or the resources to fully outfit the outdated one.
“It gave us a lot of years of good service,” O’Sullivan said as the ambulance faded away, “and it lasted a couple of years longer than we thought it would. So I have slightly mixed emotions. But this process has been in place for over three years. I think there would be more mixed emotions and more nostalgia if the process were quicker. But it became so cumbersome that, in the end, this was a relief.”
Photos by Clark Judge
