On Sunday, November 20, 2016, the Avon Volunteer Fire Department (AVFD) will officially welcome its new Engine 11. From 1:00-3:00 p.m., the Department will hold a special "housing" ceremony at AVFD Company 4 on Huckleberry Hill Road. Members of the Department and the community will push Engine 11 into its bay and formally welcome it to the AVFD's apparatus fleet.
The AVFD took delivery of its new Engine 11 in June and has been working to prepare Company 4 to become its permanent home. In July, the AVFD put the new E11 into service and took the old E11 offline. E11's first assignment was a 12-hour overnight standby shift with a crew of AVFD volunteers covering East Granby as that community began the healing process after the tragic loss of its Chief Peter Ahlstrin.
"It's been about 15 years since we replaced fire engines in town," says AVFD Chief Michael Trick. "Engines 10 and 14 and Ladder 12 are the newest vehicles in our fleet - and they all arrived in 2001."
The cab and chassis of the new E11 were commissioned to the AVFD's specifications from Michigan-based Spartan. The vehicle's body was custom built by Gowans-Knight in Watertown, Connecticut. Custom reflective tape applications were designed and donated by Orafol whose Reflective Solutions Division (formerly Reflexite Corporation) is headquartered in Avon, Connecticut.
Engine 11 carries 750 gallons of water (250 gallons more than its predecessor), and has an enclosed cab, a more powerful engine, state-of-the-art safety systems including cameras on all sides of the vehicle, airbags in the cab, and a seat belt monitoring system to alert the driver to crew members not buckled up.
Currently in production at Gowans-Knight is another new engine for the AVFD. Being built on an identical cab and chassis to E11, it will replace the AVFD's almost 30-year-old Engine 7.