It might just look like an ordinary fire truck to some, but the 2016 Pierce Pumper-Tanker is much more to the Olive Volunteer Fire Department and the communities it serves.

"We've never had something like this before," said Olive Volunteer Fire Department assistant chief Jason Dobson.
Olive, Oklahoma, has the Happy Corner convenience store, a K-12 school, a church and, of course, it's volunteer fire department - the heart of the tiny town.

It's everything to the community. 

"Our fire district is 44 square miles and approximately 841 people we protect," Dobson said. 

The department was founded in in 1993, but before that, those in the community were in a vulnerable position.

"Without us being here to quickly respond [residents would] have to wait for another fire department that could take up to 10 minutes to get here.  And in 10 minutes we know a fire could consume a home. Ten minutes means life. It could be life-changing for someone suffering cardiac arrest," Dobson said.  

Before Olive's department was established, those in the community depended on help from fire departments in surrounding towns.

Police tracked the SUV using the car’s GPS system to the Soundview Houses at Metcalf and Seward Aves. about a half hour later.

Cops arrested Joshua Gicead, 31, and Jorge Santiago, 54, and charged them with grand larceny, petty larceny and unauthorized use of a vehicle.

Santiago, who was at the wheel, was slapped with an added possession of stolen property charge.

The FDNY vehicle is used by an EMS lieutenant and paramedic to respond to calls, a department spokesman said.

All but $1,525 of the increase would be allocated toward purchasing a new fire truck within about three years for the joint Egg Harbor Town and Village Fire Department.

Each community shares 50-50 on fire protection expenses. Past practice has had each community accumulating the purchase price of new apparatus in for several years in advance of placing an order for the equipment.

The $87,500 the town would set aside for 2017 would be the first installment of the purchase price.

Most other categories of expenditures in the town budget show no spending increase. An exception is spending for the town hall, budgeted for 2017 at $25,459. The town had budgeted $22,459 for the current year's budget, however, has spent less than $3,700 from the account.

The town tax levy for 2017 amounts to $473,405 — about 57 percent of the town's projected revenue for the coming year. The figure represents about a $5,300 (1 percent) increase from this year. The increase is allowed under state levy limits because of new construction adding to the tax base.

The department purchased it that year and sold it in 1980.

But what's so amazing is how they found it after all these years.

For more than 35 years Asbury has had this 1962 model vintage fire truck and kept it in service until just four years ago but now it's heading back home to Maryland at the Huntingtown Volunteer Fire Department.

Officials there say all they knew was the truck was ultimately sold to someone who brought it to Alabama.

But lately they saw a video of the truck in a Christmas parade on the Internet on a national fire department website. 

They inquired if that was the truck and turns out it was.

The Maryland Fire Department is looking to spend more than $50,000 to restore it to brand new condition.

"It will be used for parades, firemen's conventions, and so forth like that. We're hoping to have it done by April of 2017.  We have a southern Maryland's Firemen's Convention that will be held at our station.  We host it this year so we're hoping to have it done by then," said Clinton Cox Jr., Huntingtown Maryland volunteer firefighter.