The Pueblo West Fire Department recently acquired two new pumpers and donated one of its older pumpers to the Boone Fire Department, which was in need of one due to the fact that it had no backup pumper in operation.
The Pueblo West department got its new pumpers -- which are fire trucks that carry water and are the main source for pumping water -- in October and they went into service about two weeks ago after the fire department worked on them to get them ready to go, according to Brad Davidson, a division chief of the Pueblo West Fire Department.
Davidson said the department needed the pumpers because more resources are necessary to respond to an increase in calls and it needed to replace aging equipment.
"They've been great so far," Davidson said. "They're class A custom pumpers, which means it has a bigger pump in it and the quality of the construction of the truck is good."
Because the department got two new pumpers, it decided to get rid of a 1976 class A pumper that had been used by the department as a reserve truck.
"We thought, 'What was the best thing we could do with this truck?' and the idea was to see if any smaller volunteer fire department around us could use it," Davidson said.
The Boone Fire Department jumped at the opportunity to get the pumper.
The Boone department had only one class A pumper and if that truck were to break down and go out of service for repairs they had no backup options except for two brush trucks, which are used for fighting brush and grass fires but aren't necessarily suited for other types of firefighting.
With approval from the Pueblo West Metropolitan District board, the pumper recently was donated to the Boone department and is now in its possession.