The new fire engines, also referred to as pumper trucks, are being obtained through a four-year lease with an option to buy. In total, the cost of the lease is just over $2 million, with each pumper truck running $647,864. Interest on the lease is listed at 4.9 percent.

The three fire engines will take between 10-11 months to build, St. George Fire Chief Robert Stoker said. Once delivered, two of the new trucks will be put on front-line duty at fire stations in the areas of SunRiver and Dixie Downs.

The new pumper trucks will allow the Fire Department to retire trucks that have been in use since the 1970s, albeit they currently are on reserve.

An example of the fire engines being built to meet the city’s needs is that they will include additional storage space, Stoker said. The department tries to have as much equipment on one firetruck as possible when responding to an incident. That way they don’t end up pulling additional resources from elsewhere.

Equipment on fire trucks includes more than just that used to battling fires. Firefighters routinely respond to incidents involving medical emergencies, hazardous material spills and clean up and vehicle accidents that sometimes require special extrication equipment.

"Have an escape plan, draw a map of their house, and know each way to get out of their rooms and go over with their parents," said Marquette City Fire Department Engineer Dan Pruner. "If they have a babysitter, go over it with the babysitter, so everybody knows. It's a good thing to know because you don't want to figure that out in an emergency. It's good to have that ahead of time."

The creatures were discovered Friday morning at Station Six, at 1901 Clint Moore Rd. near North Military Trail.

"It's possible they were taking refuge from the weather," agency spokesman Bob Lemons said. "It's a very active station. That's why they were quite surprised to find hitchhikers."

The crew put one of the baby raccoons in nearby bushes, the mama raccoon climbed down from the truck and went to it, and firefighters brought the second baby to the ground to reunite the furry family, Lemons said.

“I would feel my heart jump out of my chest," Deputy Fire Chief Joe Murray said as he explained the feeling of waking up in the middle of the night to an alarm, alerting firefighters of a fire.

“Just imagine someone startles you when you're in a dead sleep and you wake up and sometimes you get a little disoriented,” he explained.

Firefighters in Beloit no longer have that sudden jolt. Instead it's a gradual increase.

"Basically it’s the difference of gently waking someone or gently even getting them moving the apparatus during the daytime as to basically scaring them nearly to death," Dr. Jay MacNeal, MercyRockford EMS Medical Director, said.

The change comes after an alarming study by Mercyhealth doctors Jay MacNeal and Chris Wistrom. They found with the old blaring tones firefighters heart rates skyrocketed to the 150's and 160's. With the gradual increase heart rates dropped an average of 30 percent.

"The faster your heart beats the less relaxation you have and the less blood supply your blood is getting so the heart actually steals the blood supply from your body to some extent the faster the heart rate goes the harder that becomes," Dr. MacNeal said.

The driver, Francis J. Crook, 67, of Almond, apparently accelerated too quickly, causing the vehicle to sideswipe the house and plunge into the creek, witnesses said.

Nancy Griffin was on the porch waiting for the ambulance to take her brother for medical treatment in Hornell. She said the driver “must have gassed it. I just heard it when he hit the side of the building . . . BOOM!”

“It just sounded like a million windows breaking,” neighbor Doris Rose said.

Crook was taken to St. James Mercy Hospital in Hornell for treatment. His condition has not been released. The man waiting for the medical transport was later taken by another ambulance.

Firefighters spent nearly three hours assisting the crew of a wrecker removing the ambulance from the ankle-deep water. Steep, rocky creek banks foiled attempts to pull the ambulance out from the direction it entered the creek.