South Williamsport (PA) Fire Station has recently added a new rescue boat to its fleet. According to a wnep.com article, this addition comes after the drowning of a 10-year old boy in May.

The department used relief funds to pay for the $3,000 boat. The rescue boat can be used in winter months, during icy conditions as well. Chief Jeffrey Trammell shares that by taking the boat out on the ice, firefighters can prevent injury of themselves but also rescue the victim faster.

Trammell confirms that firefighters must go through four phases of water rescue training. Five firefighters have been certified so far, but the goal is to have all 20 trained before the end of next summer.

The post South Williamsport (PA) FD Adds Rescue Boat to Fleet appeared first on Fire Apparatus: Fire trucks, fire engines, emergency vehicles, and firefighting equipment.

More than $260,000 in low-interest loan funding was awarded to Huntingdon Regional Fire and Rescue in Huntingdon County on August 4. The funds were awarded by Senator Judy Ward and Representative Rich Irvin through the Office of the State Fire Commissioner’s State Fire & Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Loan Assistance Program.

According to tristatealert.com, the program offers a fixed 2% interest rate to fire and EMS companies in PA. Specifically, this funding must be used for the purchase of a 2017 heavy duty rescue-pumper.

Chief Tim Furlong shared to huntingdondailynews.com that this truck has been long-awaited. The department is replacing a 1998 pumper with the 2017 model, noting it’s been over 20 years since Huntingdon Fire and Rescue received a new apparatus.

The post Huntingdon Regional (PA) Fire and Rescue Receives State Funding for New Rig appeared first on Fire Apparatus: Fire trucks, fire engines, emergency vehicles, and firefighting equipment.

The Dam B Volunteer Fire Department received a new brush truck on August 2. According to a kjas.com article, Brush Truck 24 was welcomed with a push-in ceremony by residents and members of the fire department. The truck will reside in Emergency Services District 5. 

The brush truck was constructed by Skeeter Emergency vehicles in Hillsboro, Texas. Marketing Director, Israel Bowman attended the push-in ceremony. He shared that the truck is customized to fit the needs of the fire department.  

The price of the apparatus was under $250,000 and the department was able to make a down payment of about $100,000.  

Dam B has seven vehicles total with this new addition.  

The post TX Volunteer Fire Department Receives New Brush Truck  appeared first on Fire Apparatus: Fire trucks, fire engines, emergency vehicles, and firefighting equipment.

A nearly century-old fire boat took its final trip along the Willamette River, marking the end of a historic era for Portland Fire and Rescue. The David Campbell took her final voyage Monday, Aug. 4, 2025, to dry dock to be renovated so it can be placed in the Columbia River Maritime Museum.

The fire boat was named after one of Portland’s most revered fire chiefs, who died in the line of duty in 1911, kgw.com reported.

Commissioned in 1927, the David Campbell had a long career, witnessing the riverfront evolve from wooden docks and steamships to modern steel bridges and high-rises. At its peak, the vessel could pump 12,000 gallons of water per minute and was vital in some of the largest maritime fire responses, including a five-alarm fire at the Red Lion Hotel on the Columbia River nearly a decade ago, KGW reported.

After being officially retired in 2021, the fire boat is now headed to drydock storage and will be transported to the museum in the spring of 2026, where it will be placed on public display, according to the report.

The post Portland (OR) Bids Farewell to Nearly 100-Year-Old David Campbell Fire Boat appeared first on Fire Apparatus: Fire trucks, fire engines, emergency vehicles, and firefighting equipment.

Max Bryan
The Detroit News
(TNS)

Voters in two Metro Detroit suburbs will head to the polls Tuesday to decide on multimillion-dollar bond proposals to modernize their police and fire departments and accommodate something neither city initially planned to have when their facilities were built decades ago: women.

Novi is seeking voter approval of a $120 million bond to build a new public safety headquarters, two new fire stations and modernize another station. And Livonia is seeking approval of a $150 million bond to finance a new police station, library, public green space and renovations to the western Wayne County suburb’s five fire stations.

Novi officials said when their current facilities were built in the late 1970s and early 1980s, they weren’t designed to be co-ed. The city now has 15 female officers, who make up more than 20% of its staff of 73. And it has five women in the fire department, which has 28 full-time and 70 part-time workers.

Livonia’s fire department has five female firefighters out of 82, while its police department has 20 female officers on its force of 150, or 13%.

These numbers are colliding with a lack of female locker rooms, showers, sleeping quarters and changing areas at the cities’ fire departments. Novi police have enough lockers for their female officers, but they’re out of space, said Erick Zinser, Novi’s public safety director.

“No one, I think, would have guessed that we would have (more than 20%) of our sworn staff of police officers be women,” said Novi Communications Director Sheryl Walsh-Molloy.

To pay for the new facilities, Livonia would repay the bond debt over 25 years through a 1.43-mill property tax to help finance renovations for the suburb’s five fire stations, a new police station, public green space and a library. If approved, the millage would cost a homeowner in the city of 92,100 residents $1.43 per $1,000 of their property’s taxable value.

Novi’s proposed $120 million bond would be financed and repaid through a 1-mill property tax increase over 25 years to build a new public safety headquarters and two new fire stations and renovate a fourth station.

Part of the money from these bonds would go toward updating locker rooms, showers and sleeping quarters to accommodate a workforce that looks different than the one envisioned when the current police and fire stations were originally built.

Advocates said public safety facilities need to accommodate women from the get-go, as opposed to being retrofitted.

“Regardless of what’s under your uniform, if you’re a good person and you can get the job done, you should be allowed, as part of your written contract with your employer, to have a place where you can use the restroom,” said Rachael Stabell, vice president of Women In Fire and retired lieutenant paramedic out of Colorado Springs.

Even some opponents of the proposed bond increase want women to have adequate facilities. Jim Biga, a leader of the group “Livonia Vote NO on $150M Bond/Millage Proposal,” argued the Livonia police and fire departments were “held hostage” in the millage proposal to earn public support.

Biga also contended the existing police station isn’t in as bad a condition as city leaders make it out to be. He said the city could add to the current station instead of building a new one.

But that in no way affects his support for women to have adequate facilities, he said.

“They should have their own privacy. They shouldn’t have to share a