Less than one year after the town ordered three identical Seagrave fire pumper trucks, the new trucks are on site and ready to respond in an emergency. The department held a "wet-down" ceremony to inaugurate the three new trucks entry into service on Sept. 17.
Unlike the department's older trucks that these replace, the new trucks all have fully-enclosed cabs and roll-over protection, and include air bags for increased occupant protection and safety. They also offer improved scene lighting for incident site illumination and each of the three now carry a vehicle extraction rescue tool. Before this, only the rescue truck carried one.
The department took possession of the new trucks in late July 2016 and spent the month of August working to install and add to the truck needed communications equipment, gear, and emergency equipment and supplies. The new trucks' radios are compatible with and will allow communications between the department and the town police and surrounding towns' departments.
The three new trucks replace the older 1982 Mack Pumper 462, the 1977 Mack Foam Truck 467 and the 1990 Mack Engine 466.
One benefit of having three identical trucks is that the Fire Department will need to perform fewer hours of firefighter-training from now on.
"Once you train on one truck, you're trained on all. You don't have to learn three different trucks. It eliminates lots of man-hours of training," said Fire Chief Mike Jenkins.
The purchases of the three trucks were originally authorized by a bond resolution passed in 2013; that plan envisioned buying three new pumpers over the course of five years. Instead, in November 2015, the Fire Department asked town's leaders to consider a new and better plan: to purchase three identical pumper trucks in one year for an upfront discount off the overall purchase price and future operational savings on firefighter training hours.