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Posted: Aug 23, 2016

Cayuse Mountain Fire turns personal for some firefighters

At last report at least 13 homes had burned in the Cayuse Mountain Fire burning in Stevens County. One of those homes had been in a volunteer firefighter’s family for more than 40 years. The family thought it was in the clear, but then the flames returned. “Everything around it was burning, but the house wasn’t on fire.
- PUB DATE: 8/23/2016 7:47:28 PM - SOURCE: KAYU-TV MyFox Spokane
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Posted: Aug 23, 2016

Swansea (MA) Rolls Out New Fire Apparatus

The Swansea Fire Department rolled out its brand-new fire engine Sunday morning, touting reliability and efficiency improvements over its current vehicles.
The new truck sports, among many improvements, more hose connections, better pumping equipment, and the ability to carry more equipment than the vehicle it will replace.

“Technology keeps getting better and better and better,” Fire Chief Peter Burke said, “so the technology in this truck is worlds above what we had before.”

Burke said that the new vehicle cost $550,000, but is expected to last 25 to 30 years, as its predecessor did. The department will keep the previous truck – a 1980 model – in reserve.

The truck should be ready to start heading out on calls in about two weeks, after firefighters train on it.

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Posted: Aug 23, 2016

Lockington (OH) Unveils New Fire Apparatus

The Lockington Volunteer Fire Association (LVFA) will be celebrating 70 years with a little more cheer, thanks to the purchase of a new fire engine.
The engine, which is a 2016 upper tanker, cost roughly $420,000 and it took Lockington two decades years to save the money for it. Through tax levies and fundraising by the fire department, the goal of replacing their now-40-year-old fire engine has become a reality.

"It's pretty well to the end of its life span. The next, newer truck is 19 years old ... and it'll be second out for a spare or backup," Lockington Fire Chief Jon Adams said.

In addition to being a newer model, the new fire engine will be able to haul water to fire scenes.

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Posted: Aug 23, 2016

New Kingston (NY) Fire Apparatus Arriving Next Year

City officials in Kingston are gearing up to finally approve a new ladder truck for the fire department. The Finance and Audit Committee has given the green light to Fire Chief Mark Brown for the purchase of a custom built rig just shy of a million dollars, at $950,000.
Brown had received initial bonding approval for the truck back in 2013, but the purchase got mired in red tape and other delays. "I was told not to buy the truck," Brown said. "It was an executive decision," Council Chairman James Noble recalled.

Now, due to rising costs, an additional $50,000 is required to purchase the same equipment, Brown explained. Further hesitation could result in the city's remaining 20-year-old ladder truck breaking down, which could raise local fire insurance rates.

"We have a lot of 3, 4, 5 story buildings in Kingston. A 35-foot ladder will not reach them," Brown said. Tall structures include two hospitals, Yosman Towers, and the County Office Building. "We're eight years overdue," he added, noting that the estimated life span of a typical ladder truck is only 12 years. "It's out of service a lot; it's starting to cost me money, a lot of money."

Rather than being sold, the old truck will be kept on fleet as a reserve backup ladder truck. Brown joked that the last truck KFD sold, had broken down on the way to Wisconsin.

Following common council ratification of the bond, Spartan ERV of Ephrata, PA will construct the truck to spec and deliver the vehicle in 390 days -- in 2018. The vehicle will weigh about 40 tons, with a 20-ton stainless steel ladder 100 feet tall.

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Posted: Aug 23, 2016

Petersburg (VA) Fire Equipment Repossessed

The city's cash flow woes hit home this week as the company that supplied the city's Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services Department with new breathing equipment has repossessed the equipment and is holding it until the city can make good on its payments.

Richmond-based Fire Protection Equipment Co. on Wednesday repossessed the self-contained breathing apparatus it sold to the city earlier this year because "the invoices had yet to be reconciled," said Deputy Fire Chief Brian Sturdivant. "They made a business decision to repossess until the invoices are reconciled," he said.

The nearly $400,000 contract with Fire Protection Equipment, which was to have been paid for through a federal grant, also included training, Sturdivant said.

The apparatus, which enables firefighters "to navigate through smoky environments," he said, "had yet to go live with actually placing them in service. We were working through the training component." A rumor that circulated on Thursday that some fire trucks also had been repossessed was "not true from what I understand," Sturdivant said.

The repossession followed news that the Central Virginia Waste Management Authority is threatening to suspend trash and recycling collections in Petersburg unless the city makes its first full monthly payment since May and offers a plan to repay the more than $600,000 it owes to the authority by Friday, Aug. 19.

Both revelations, and other reports of city departments unable to obtain operating supplies or losing employees because of pay cuts, seemed to confirm a prediction made by Virginia Secretary of Finance Richard D. Brown during a presentation to City Council on Aug. 3. Brown reported the findings of a team of state auditors and financial consultants who are helping Petersburg sort out its financial problems.

The team had found that as of June 30, the city had an estimated total of about $18.8 million in unpaid bills -- about $4.1 million in funds owed by various city departments to each other, and about $14.7 million owed to outside entities.

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