Cranston Fire Department will add a new aerial ladder truck thanks to a $1 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, CranstonOnline.com reported.

The new 100-foot aerial ladder fire truck will replace a 20-year-old truck, the report said.

A fire official said the new truck would be safer, easier to drive and includes custom features to help the department’s firefighters, according to the report. The new aerial ladder fire truck is 41-feet long, which is on the shorter end of these vehicles. The department is trying to buy smaller trucks so it’s easier to maneuver around the city. Custom features include two compartments on both sides of the truck for storage and extraction tools that will allow firefighters to pop open a door quicker. He said the fire truck’s outriggers are smaller compared to other outriggers, which will help in crowded streets.

The total cost for the fire truck is $1,261,910 with remaining funding coming through a line item in the department’s budget, the report said.

The new fire truck will be stationed at the department’s Garden City location and the vehicle it replaces will be kept on reserve. The department will also buy an E-One fire engine pumper through bond money. The pumper is being built now and should be in by summertime.

The Wood River City Council paved the way Monday for a new pumper truck for the fire department, AdvantageNews.com reported. 

A fire official said the truck will cost more than $932,000, the report said.

By locking into the price, the fire official said the city avoided expected price increases of 6 percent in mid-December, and a similar increase early in 2023, according to the report.

The new truck will replace a 2000 model that has outlived the company that built it, making it nearly impossible to repair or find replacement parts, the report said.

The build time for the new truck is estimated to be about two years.

The city of Rincon and the Rincon Fire Department dedicated a fire truck to a longtime firefighter, WTOC.com reported.

Gary Kocher is a certified firefighter with the Rincon Fire Department. He was one of the first paid firefighters in the Lealman Fire Department in St. Petersburg (FL), the report said. He moved to Rincon in 1986 and started volunteering with the Rincon Fire Department in July 1987.

Kocher won multiple awards for his service such as Firefighter of the Year, according to the report.

Rincon Engine 1 was dedicated to Kocher for his 35 years of service to the community and leadership ability to the new firefighters in the Rincon Fire Department, the report said.

It took more time and money than anticipated, but the Village of San Jon (NM) celebrated the opening of a second fire station north of town on November 17, QCSunOnline.com reported.

Village officials had been thinking of expanding its first fire station, built in 2004. A village official compared getting all the fire equipment into the cramped building to a Tetris video game, the report said.

The village decided to build a second fire station nearly a mile northeast of I-40 on Quay Road 59.8, just off Highway 469, according to the report.

San Jon in October 2019 received a federal Community Development Block Grant of $750,000, the report said. The village applied for more federal money and got it – for a total of $1,006,500, plus $42,000 in matching funds from the fire department, the report said.

Finally, the village broke ground on the 4,000-square-foot, four-bay building in January.

By Alan M. Petrillo

Occoquan-Woodbridge-Lorton (VA) Volunteer Fire Department, known regionally as OWL Fire Department, needed to replace a rearmount aerial platform. It chose to go with a midmount aerial platform built by Seagrave Fire Apparatus, a 95-foot Aerialscope on a Marauder chassis with a 141-inch full tilt cab.

Wayne Haight, OWL’s chief, says the department is a combo agency with career staff 24/7 at two of three firehouses along with medic units. “In our three stations we have six engines, a heavy rescue, a 105-foot tower and 110-foot ladder, (one in reserve), two brush trucks, a collapse/rescue unit, an air/light truck, three utility vehicles, four ambulances, and three rescue/fire boats,” Haight said.

Craig Williams, owner of Emergency Vehicle Services, who sold the truck to OWL, says the fire department already has four Seagrave pumpers, and two on the production line, so it was natural for the department to go with a Seagrave aerial for its fleet. “The fire department chose a raised roof on their Aerialscope to emulate the roofs on their Seagrave pumpers,” Williams points out.

Haight says that the department wanted to focus on where the truck would be placed at a fire scene. “A midmount aerial apparatus is much easier and quicker to set up at a fire scene than a rear mount rig,” he says, adding that the OWL Marauder Aerialscope is powered by a 500-horsepower (hp) Cummins X12 diesel engine with an Allison 4000 EVS automatic transmission and a Telma Retarder Auxiliary Braking System.