The $300,000 pumper truck was ordered a year ago and was finished and delivered to the department at the beginning of this year.

A grant from the Rural Fire District covered $200,000 of the cost, with part of that coming from a special county bond. The remaining $100,000 was paid by the City of Milford.

That’s a lot of money, but Kral said the all-volunteer department deserves it.

“If you don’t pay them a cent for their 20 calls a month, it’s the least we can do to keep them safe,” he said.

"It's done all it can for us and we're experiencing more and more mechanical issues with it all of the time," said Thompson. "It doesn't meet all of the safety requirements that the National Fire Protection Association has mandated in terms of vehicle safety features for some of our personnel."

Thompson says the grant is very competitive, in that, they are competing against other fire stations nationwide, including Puerto Rico.

Outside, a woman with an aluminum bat was whacking two vehicles in the parking lot, smashing windows, mirrors and lights, and puncturing all the tires.

Battalion Chief Ron Roysum, who watched a video of the incident, said the woman then got into her vehicle, drove to the front of the station and shattered two windows of the station’s training room before fleeing.

Custom making the truck allowed the department to have input into the process.

“The biggest things is that we were combining two trucks into one truck,” Houstoun said. “We were consolidating the two trucks and we wanted to make sure that we could carry everything we needed.”

The trucks placed out of service were purchased in 1989 and 1999, respectively. Houstoun said the two trucks were spending a lot of time in the shop, needing repairs, and maintenance costs were increasing.