Ladder 44 got baptized Monday, but it wasn't by fire. Instead, Fire Station 44's new 42-foot-long Pierce Enforcer ladder truck was hosed down as part of a long-standing tradition before firefighters, joined by Mayor Lenny Curry, toweled it dry to be blessed by a Catholic priest.
With an average 150 runs a month and more than 140,000 miles of firefighting on the previous 10-year-old ladder truck, a new one was needed to handle a Southside district full of apartments, hotels, homes and businesses along the Baymeadows Road corridor, Station 44 Capt. James Kountz said. So he revived a tradition of baptizing a new fire truck that dates back to the 1800s when firefighters used horse-drawn steam pumpers.
Jacksonville’s fire department has 58 stations with 51 engines, 12 ladder trucks and 41 rescue units, according to spokesman Tom Francis. The city’s fleet management division considers a fire truck’s age, mileage and cost to repair before a decision is made to replace it. That’s about 10 years of use for an engine, 15 for a ladder truck and five for a rescue unit. Many things can alter that life span.