Hustead Fire Chief Larry Ridenour officially presented the custom-made 2016 Sutphen Pumper to a group of township residents and local firefighter who gathered in the firehouse bay for the special event. Also on hand were Mad River Township Trustee Robert McClure Jr., Green Township Trustee Brian Clem, who is also a Hustead firefighter, retired Hustead Fire Chief Bill Young, Hustead EMS Chief Heather Kaufman, Enon/Mad River Township Deputy Fire Chief Elmer Beard, and Sutphen Corporation Engineer Jason Haulman.

The new pumper, Rescue 49, has the ability to pump 1,500 gallons of water per minute and boasts a 1,000-gallon water tank, a 30-gallon fuel foam tank, and a 1,000-watt hydraulic generator. The six-man cab provides additional space to transport firefighters, and a deck gun mounted on top of the vehicle that can be easily deployed. The fire chief noted that the vehicle was equipped with LED warning lights, and the department would be adding a backup camera system in the near future.

The Sutphen pumper replaces a 30-year-old fire truck, and the fire chief estimates that the new pumper should be in service for at least 30 years.

During the dedication ceremony, Ridenour explained that both Mad River and Green Townships provided the funding for the $446,000 Sutphen vehicle and thanked township voters for passing the operating levies that provided the necessary funding to purchase the new apparatus. 

The Belleview McVille Fire Department sits across the street from the Ohio River and covers 40 square miles of rural Boone County.

The department relies on the support of volunteers to protect the area. So after getting a new pumper tanker truck, Fire Chief Jeff Hermes decided to dedicate it to an unwavering supporter of the fire department.

Glenn Moore was a former firefighter, fire chief and board member who passed earlier this year after a cancer diagnosis.

It is the first time a truck in Belleview McVille has been dedicated. Hermes said he doubts there will ever be another reason of this magnitude to cause another dedication.

“I was an outsider here. I come here when I retired to enjoy some peace and serenity,” Hermes said. “But I was given the opportunity to run this place and move it forward. It wasn’t a popular thing with some locals, but Glenn always was a voice of reason and was a person who continued his friendship toward the department and was always donating and smoothing things out over here.

"We certainly didn't expect that it would have to be taken off the road immediately, literally overnight," Town Manager Peter Elwell told the Select Board at a meeting Tuesday. "It's our reserve pumper."

With a cracked frame and lots of rust, the 1998 Freightliner 3D failed inspection.

The pumper, which was expected to be replaced in fiscal 2020, would cost about $525,000 to replace. The vehicle is "rapidly deteriorating," according to Elwell.

Chief Mike Bucossi and Assistant Chief Len Howard discussed options with Elwell, coming up with a recommendation to purchase a combined pumper/rescue vehicle as a replacement for about $550,000.

The topic will be brought to the Select Board again soon. The town is currently in budget talks.

"We took a look at the capital plan as we had proposed it just two weeks ago," Elwell said. "Obviously, the sacrifices that would have to be made to take half a million dollars out of that plan to buy a pumper would be very severe, affecting multiple different other requests that have benefit to the community in various ways."

The town has four pumpers, including the damaged vehicle. Two of them are considered reserves. Losing one would compromise the town's pumping capacity, according to Elwell.

With the number of volunteer firefighters dwindling in outlying towns, there was concern about relying more on other departments in a mutual aid agreement. That could leave Brattleboro vulnerable in the instance of a structure fire, Elwell said.

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – Fort Wayne’s ambulance service will stay with the Three Rivers Ambulance Authority. The Fort Wayne Fire Department and TRAA announced a compromise plan Thursday.

“This is a reasonable compromise for what we are trying to accomplish,” fire chief Eric Lahey, said. “Our goal has always been making a significant improvement in the delivery of care at no extra cost to the citizens.”

Starting in January, the fire department will start having a paramedic on the engines to provide more advanced medical care at the scene before the TRAA paramedics arrive. To cover the cost of that change, the department said it needed to acquire the entire ambulance service.

“Putting advanced life support (ALS) on every engine comes at a cost. In order to recoup those costs, we have to absorb the entire system. We cannot get revenue from delivering ALS care. You have to transport the patient in the eyes of Medicare and Medicaid and insurances providers to collect revenue, Lahey explained.

Now, under the new agreement, TRAA will cover the costs of equipping the engines, training the firefighters and staffing the engines with ALS level of care. Lahey said that will be about $400,000 a year and will come out of TRAA’s reserve fund, which currently has around $5 million in it. The agreement is for three years and either side has to give two-year’s notice if they want to end it. That means it will last for at least five years.

“The reserves will be replenished through revenue streams,” Lahey said. “There are also controls in place that if at any point the reserves aren’t being kept where they should be, we can dissolve the agreement.”