The list of equipment McAnally provided during Monday's meeting includes firehose, couplings, adapters, hose rollers, pike poles, plaster hooks, hose bed covers, low frequency sirens, a rope rescue kit, stokes baskets and wheel chocks.  

The list includes 12 100-foot sections of 5-inch diameter hose, nine with couplings and three without couplings, 36 50-foot sections of 3-inch hose, and 21 50-foot sections of 1¾-inch hose.  

"It will outlast the truck and outlast the people," McAnally said said of the more than 3,000 feet of hose he plans to purchase. It will last a long time if you take care of it."

The fallout is far-reaching for the department; state law mandates firefighters need to have proper, updated gear. But the gear CFD uses was damaged after the fire, leaving fire chief Tony Priester's department with a $40,000 price tag on new gear and equipment.  

“The seven sets of gear that we’re having replaced is boots, pants, coats, flash hood, SCBA masks, gloves, helmet," he says. Just one set usually has an asking price of more than $2,000, and that's before factoring in other equipment.

It's not as simple as cutting a check to get the new equipment. Priester says “We have to first file it with our insurance, VFIS. And that’s all the departments that were down there. 20 plus departments.”

“Thank you for what you do. We appreciate you and we wanted to do something for you,” she said. “A special service that our church offers is blessing the vehicles of special responders. It is a beautiful blessing. What we do here at the monastery is live and pray, and we pray for you and your safety and for your families.”  

The Rev. Michael Hatrak, retired Orthodox priest, presided over the blessing service with a number of the sisters singing responses. Hatrak prayed for them and their families in their daily lives and for them as they serve their communities as firefighters and the dangerous situations they encounter.

After the brief service, the men and women gathered in front of their respective vehicles in the parking lot next to the gazebo.

Finn argued that the city could refurbish the 2004 ladder truck, keep it on the road for another five to seven years and then replace it. In the end, council members decided to wait on a new ladder truck.

Mayor Joseph Butler Jr. warned council members that the city will be taking on too much debt for a new $2.4 million pool at Thompson Park, about $3.1 million in a court expansion and other planned projects, so he opposed purchasing a new truck now.

The new truck is a 2019 pumper/tanker with a water capacity of 1,250 gallons; seats for four firefighters; inside protected ladder space and additional storage.