That's why firefighters are thankful that that the city council approved a federal loan Tuesday night for $5 million worth of new equipment.

"We've actually bought apparatus that other communities were letting go, getting rid of," District Fire Chief James Mellen of the Fall River Fire Department said. "We've bought them at a greatly reduced rate, and put them in as a front-line apparatus."

At fire department headquarters, the back-up engine looks more like an antique, while Engine 1 has critical equipment that often breaks down -- or doesn't exist to begin with.

"It's a Godsend for our department," District Chief Ambrose Smith of the Fall River Fire Department said. "It's just like your own car. If your car gets to be 20 years old, you have a lot more breakdowns than if a car's 2 or 3 years old."

The engine will be custom-made by Precision Fire Apparatus of Camdenton, Missouri, but that takes months, Mouser said.

"We think it's probably going to be early January, February of 2017 before we'd be putting the new apparatus into service," Mouser said, adding the new truck would likely improve the department's safety and effectiveness.