"Public safety is my number one priority, and this station opening for 24-hour coverage will enable our combination fire department, which includes career and part-time firefighter/paramedics, to better serve the main population center of our community," Tokar said in a statement.

The Lombard Avenue station, which was built by volunteer firefighters in the 1950s and had "outlived its usefulness," was being used primarily for training and equipment storage until reopening part-time in April 2015 to supplement the department's headquarters on Virginia Avenue in the village's industrial park. That station is open for 24 hours.

Since reopening, the Lombard Avenue station has been staffed 12 hours a day by two or three people who respond to emergencies via ambulance, Fire Chief George Sheets said.

He said it took nearly two years to get the station ready for 24-hour coverage due to a combination of its "total refurbishment" — adding windows and a fire alarm system that meets code — and his desire to evaluate how operations at the reopened station were working.

"We wanted to start out slowly — open up for 12 hours to see how that concept worked," he said. "Now, we're able to open it 24/7, which serves the core population of our community."

Sheets said the ability to deploy an ambulance from the Lombard Avenue station has "worked extremely well," cutting response times by two or more minutes in some cases, which in medical emergencies can be the difference between life and death.

"We're really excited about having this station open because if we got a call in the past over here in this area of the town… the ambulance was coming out of our industrial park," Tokar said. "They would have to cross the Metra tracks at 103rd, and a lot of times the train was there and the ambulance would sit there and wait.

Because a patient's insurance provider reimburses the town whose ambulance service makes the hospital transport, Chicago Ridge was losing out on revenue when another municipality picked up emergency calls in the heavily residential southeastern side of town, Tokar explained.

The Lombard Avenue station does not currently provide a fire response and will remain ambulance-only in the short-term, even after going to 24 hours, Sheets said.

The department does, however, plan to begin running a fire suppression apparatus — it currently has an engine in storage — out of the Lombard Avenue station within the next year, he said.

The Patrick Shafer Allstate Agency in Sycamore presented the department with a $1,000 check Tuesday.

The money will go toward purchasing equipment and supplies for investigating and documenting fires in the city of Sycamore and the Sycamore Fire Protection District, according to a fire department news release.

The Allstate Foundation awards $1,000 grants to nonprofit organizations with Allstate agency owners. The grants are only available by invitation from the local Allstate agent.

A wide variety of medical materials and instruments were dislodged inside the heavy-duty vehicle and spread across the intersection.

A black Toyota 4-Runner SUV involved in the crash sustained heavy front-end damage.

One driver, Patrick Edmond, said he ran over the fire hose and it tore up the bottom of his vehicle. Several other cars also had damage. No injuries were reported.

"We are asking everyone affected by this accident to contact the Jackson Police Department for an accident report for the incident and to contact Risk Management for the City of Jackson tomorrow for their next course of action, regarding this incident," Sanders said.

City leaders said anyone whose vehicle was damaged in the accident needs to file a report with the Jackson Police Department.