In honor of the days when firefighters used to have to push hand-drawn and horse-drawn equipment into their stations, Medical Engine 542 on Thursday was manually backed into the apparatus bay to begin its duty.

San Manuel’s 2017 grant also funded the purchase of new breathing equipment, defibrillators and other rescue apparatus.

The American Medical Response ambulance was not transporting any patients at the time, fire officials said.

The driver of the other vehicle was not taken to a hospital.

The truck, which is specifically designed to handle rescues in Zoar Valley, will carry specialized repelling and white water rescue equipment used by specially trained members of the Gowanda Fire Department on an average of 130 rescue calls a year.

The total cost for the custom built unit is $430,000 and will replace a 29-year-old truck that is no longer reliable.

“This new rescue truck will be used on every non-EMS rescue call the Gowanda Volunteer Fire Department responds to,” Sen. Young said. “Securing grant funding like this is the best way to ensure our volunteer first responders have the equipment they need without imposing an added burden on local property taxpayers.”

The retired Farmington Hills firefighter and a group of others from lower Michigan delivered roughly $400,000 worth of used firefighting equipment to Iron Mountain on Thursday afternoon, to be divided among more than two dozen smaller fire departments in the region.

The Iron Mountain Fire Department is serving as distribution site for the equipment, which drew interest from as far away as Houghton and Gogebic County, said Jeff Friedenstab, the Iron Mountain deputy director of fire services who learned about the downstate program at a recent conference.

While Iron Mountain has a decent budget for their gear, Friedenstab knew of the need in some of the neighboring departments.