Ray Denuzzo, superintendent of Wolf Creek Contracting, said his crew should be done with their portion of the $1.3 million project within two or three weeks. Wolf Creek is building all but the upstairs firefighters’ living quarters in the new station. The city will finish the living quarters in house, Molgaard said.

“We’re pretty close to what we have to finish,” Denuzzo said last week.

Wolf Creek started on the 52-by-42-square-foot building Sept. 11. The weather caused some delays with the work, Denuzzo said. Construction crews couldn’t work because of rain or cold on about 50 days, he said.

The Forest Lake Fire and Rescue opened up its headquarters so the kids, all dolled up with nowhere to go, could at least get together for some pictures. “After the snow level estimates changed from around 8 inches to more than 15 inches with anticipated whiteout conditions, the Forest Lake High School prom committee decided to move prom from St. Paul to the Forest Lake High School. At around 2 p.m. one of our firefighters called me to let me know about the change in venue and pitched the idea,” Alan Newman, Forest Lake’s fire chief, tells Yahoo.

The equipment needed to respond to serious wrecks often meant multiple trucks responding to a scene, but Engine 4 carries everything.

“We built this truck to work,” said Sumner. “It is a work vehicle that is designed to provide the best level of service we can to the community.”

Since the truck was christened in March and put into service, it has hauled crews to fires and EMS calls but hasn’t been beckoned to a vehicle wreck yet. Sumner noted that crews have to stay abreast of safety features and scenarios presented by a gamut of vehicles, but having the right equipment helps.

The truck, called a quint, is a combination ladder and pump engine vehicle. It will replace the department’s ladder and reserve engine trucks and will be the village’s only quint.

The vehicle was designed and constructed by Emergency One Inc. in collaboration with a team from Franklin Park, including Brehm, the department battalion chiefs, a lieutenant and two firefighters.

The truck has a 100-foot ladder and holds up to 500 gallons of water, Brehm said. A pipe under the ladder gives firefighters the ability to hit a fire with up to 1,000 gallons of water per minute. The truck is made from aluminum, so it won’t rust and is lightweight. It also carries all the medical equipment typically found on an ambulance.