The new trucks will have the latest and safest equipment and better technology, "all of which will help us do our job better," Monroe Volunteer Fire Department spokesman Kevin Catalano said.

At a town meeting Monday, residents approved spending $3.8 million for the new trucks in a vote of 44-2. No one spoke against the plan, Catalano said.

“We are very thankful that the town supported this so we can get this moving,” he said in a telephone interview.

According to Catalano, the five trucks will be spread across the three fire departments in town -- two will go to Stepney, two to Stevenson and one to Monroe.

One is a ladder truck, one is a rescue truck, one is a tanker and two are engines.

“We will be upgrading the fleet,” Catalano said. “The new trucks will replace much older trucks -- some of them go back to the late 1980s and early 1990s."

These older trucks are still in operation, but they have started to feel their age, according to Catalano.

"Once the trucks get older, they become less reliable as maintenance and repair costs spike.

“The more we can try to fleet newer trucks, the less downtime there will be for maintenance and the safer the trucks are to ride,” he said.

The department then spent most of a year reviewing specifications for the truck it wanted and reviewing manufacturers. The order for the truck was placed in September 2015.

It took more than a year for the 39-foot pumper-tanker to be delivered, arriving last November and going into service on Dec. 28.

Firefighters have been training on the new truck, which replaced two other vehicles — a 1987 engine and a 1989 tanker.

The new truck is three-fourths the length of the department's aerial truck, Davis said. It is housed at the department's McPherson Highway fire station.

The truck has been outfitted with equipment that boosted its price tag to $602,000, which will be paid by the city. Once the pumper-tanker arrived, firefighters outfitted it with new hose and other equipment.

"We probably had another $12,000 we added," Davis said.

This new truck carries 2,500 gallons of water. Overall, it cost less or the same as replacing the two trucks that were retired. In looking at the need for this one truck, the department considered maintenance of one vehicle rather than two, as well as available manpower.

"I can get this truck to a fire with limited manpower," Davis pointed out. That was an important point in a volunteer fire department, he said.