Santee will officially be switching from the color yellow to red on their fire trucks starting with the first fire engine red one to be delivered soon from a plant in Appleton, Wisconsin. Eventually all their vehicles will be red.

Santee Fire Department’s Battalion Chief Tim Stuber, who served as chairperson on the Apparatus Committee, travelled to Pierce Manufacturing Inc. in Appleton on the project that was first presented to him about a year ago.

There were three trips for three different types of inspections of the “apparatus” as Stuber refers to it. The first inspection was for pre-construction and meeting with the engineers according to Stuber. The second inspection is to see if the firetruck is built to specifications and the third inspection is to review the almost completed apparatus and check if the diesel truck is built to expectations.

Stuber said, “This is not necessarily for big things” referring to the final inspection.

Santee Fire Department had switched over to yellow about 50 years ago. The switch back over to red is considered by the Santee Fire department personnel as a rebranding that honors a longstanding worldwide fire service tradition.

Stuber explained that nothing is significantly new. The truck will have modern electronics such as the Panasonic Toughbook. Toughbooks typically include a camera, backlit keyboard, GPS receiver, a broadband and multi touch plus and digitizer LCD that can work with any glove. The Toughbook links into dispatch and gives detailed information on the type of call it is and where it is.

“A black box on the trucks basically records the speed, braking, and the driving style of the driver in the event of an accident. Black boxes are not new or unique,” he said.

Officially the black boxes are vehicle-recording devices. 

 The new Station No. 1, which will cost an estimated $800,000, will be located about one-quarter mile away at Andersonville Road and Broadway. The township already owns the land eyed for the new station and construction could begin early next year.

A new Station No. 3 is planned at Andersonville and Farley roads. and will serve the southern portion of the township.

The existing Station No. 2, 10280 Rattalee Lake Road, will remain in service.

Feichtner says adding a third station will improve response times and could lower homeowners’ insurance premiums for some residents, as the rates are often based in part on what percentage of a municipality’s homes are within five miles of a fire station.

He said the township also owns the land for the new Station No. 3, estimated at $500,000, as it will be smaller than the new Station No.1.

About 62 percent of voters in the primary election approved an increase in the fire millage that is funding the new stations, new equipment and an additional firefighter, which will allow the township to staff the Fire Department 24 hours per day, seven days per week.