The road was shut down briefly as crews came to put out the fire, the police said.  There were no injuries.

 

The three Normal firefighters present attempted to extinguish the blaze while they called 911 to respond, but were unsuccessful. It appeared most of the cab was intact, but much of the rest of the truck was claimed by the fire.

“Looked like it may have started near one of the rear wheels, so maybe a brake or tire issue,” Barnett said.

“It’s 14 years old. Not a huge dollar loss, but we’re going to miss it,” Barnett said.

No one was injured in the fire and Normal had insurance on the vehicle. The truck was hauled back to Alexis Fire Equipment.

After the city council voted to award the department $200,000 in unspent block grant money - the last piece of funding needed to purchase a new truck - at Monday night's meeting, the fire department can now work toward securing the new, "badly-needed" demo truck, Barton said.

On average, Flint's fire trucks are 15 years old, he said.

The truck will replace the city's current oldest model - a renovated 1991 Little Debbie Bread truck.

"All our trucks are custom and they're made to our specifications and all these seven trucks are identical. That's what helps us out from driver to driver when they go from one truck to another," said Captain Frank McKenzie.

After the trucks arrived, some were only at the station for less than a minute before being put to use. In other words, more trucks equals more manpower.

"It upgrades our capacity," said Captain McKenzie. "It makes us more modern, faster to be able to fight the fires, be able to put a fire out. Everybody knows in firefighting, the faster you can put that fire out the more lives and more property we can save. That's what we're trying to do, stay on top of our game."