Fire trucks from all over Erie County showed up at Oishei Children's Hospital Monday afternoon, to show him their support. Depew's Hy-View Fire Company gave him a ride home in their truck because Tim is an Explorer in their program.

Other fire companies and departments in the area provided a fire truck escort. Some lined up along the route home.

"Just from leaving the city with Buffalo [Fire Department], to coming here with all these fire departments," said Tim. "It's just overwhelming. It's crazy."

Over the past month and a half, recognition and support for this 16 year-old battling leukemia exploded.

The $570,124 truck was designed by Wilson firefighters and constructed by Pierce Manufacturing in Appleton, Wisconsin. The process started more than a year ago under the leadership of former Fire Chief Don Oliver and was completed under Alston's tenure, with a final inspection in January and delivery of the truck in February.

"For this type of truck, this price is really a steal," Alston said. "It was the lowest bid, and it was built by a great manufacturer. Pierce is one of your top notch fire truck manufacturers."

The shiny new rescue pumper replaces a 1994 Simon-Duplex truck that Alston said was decommissioned even before the replacement arrived. The old truck had more than 100,000 miles on it, and replacement parts were impossible to find since the manufacturer went out of business.

"We sat down and looked at the cost versus benefit of keeping it, but we were spending so much money to keep it in service," he said. "While this truck was being built, we put the Simon out of commission because it was not prudent to continue to spend taxpayer dollars on it."

Multiple sources within the fire department said D.C. Fire and EMS Chief Gregory Dean and his deputies knew about issues with the cameras. However, for whatever reason, they did do anything about it until this past January when a contractor was hired to take a close look at the program.

Last week, the fire department said in a news release that having working cameras on all of the units has been "unintentionally uneven" over the years. On Monday, Dabney Hudson, the president of the District’s firefighter's union, said he knows Chief Dean knew about this issue because he talked to him about it.

Just outside the hospital, the man stole an ambulance from the 300 block of West 64th Street in the Englewood neighborhood, police said.

The man drove Ambulance 30 for about a block when he crashed into a light pole and a street sign, mowing them down.

Officers noticed the erratic driving and pulled the ambulance over in the 6300 block of South Yale Avenue.

The man was sitting in the driver’s seat and taken into custody, police said. He was taken to St. Bernard Hospital for treatment.

There’s money in the city’s budget for a permanent station, according to the city’s five year Capital Improvement Program, and it is set to be built by the end of 2018. There is an additional $342,000 available for 'Fire Protection', according to the 2018-2019 trial budget. 

In the meantime, the Phoenix Fire Department says they expect the temporary fire station to be full-time soon, they’re just waiting on funding from the city.