Pontotoc County Commissioners cleared the way Monday for Stonewall volunteer firefighters to replace a 33-year-old military surplus brush truck. Commissioners previously approved the purchase of a new Dodge Ram 3500 four-wheel drive truck chassis to replace the aging 1984 military surplus chassis on loan to the department from the U.S. Forest Service. Department officials say that chassis has been in use for 12 years and has become completely unreliable, leaving them with a single wildland brush truck — a truck specially designed to fight fires in rural areas inaccessible by roads.
Stonewall Firefighter Phillip Nuner said the new truck will be configured to make it easier to operate by one firefighter, where the older truck required two to three firefighters to operate.
"It's a more capable truck with a larger water tank," Nuner said. "And with the type of fire behavior we have (now), especially with what we call wildland interface -- areas where wildlands run up against municipalities and residential developments -- that'll be handy to have."