The Blanche and Taft communities will be getting a new fire station thanks, in part, to the Lincoln County school board donating one and a half acres of the Blanche School property for its new location, elkvalleytimes.com reported.

Preliminary figures of $200,000 would build the fire station with four bays and between two and four sleeping rooms, a fire official said, according to the report.

The new facility will be located on the southeast corner of Highway 110 and Luther Road.

The Blanche Volunteer Fire Station has a pumper truck and a small rescue truck, which houses medical supplies and extraction equipment, the report said.

The Blanche Fire Department began with a 1977 Ford truck donated by Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in June of 1977, according to the department’s website. It was housed in a county-owned building. Since that time, the county has added a new metal building for a substation in Taft.

The Huttig Fire Department recently added an aerial truck to its fleet in a first for the city, eldoradonews.com reported.

The truck will be in service within the next month, a fire official said, joining the department’s three pumper trucks, tanker truck, brush truck, ambulance, service trailer and emergency medical side-by-side, the report said.

It’s not the biggest truck in terms of water pumping capacity, but the fire official said it will expand the department’s ability to fight fires, according to the report.

The cost of Sarnia Fire and Rescue’s new ladder truck increased by around $500,000 over the past few years, but fortunately for taxpayers, the manufacturer stuck with the original price, blackburnnews.com reported.

When the service ordered the 78-foot truck from Florida in 2021, the cost was $1.5 million, the report said. A fire official said since then, the truck has seen five price increases.

The new truck, which arrived last month, replaces an existing truck that reached the end of its cycle — 13 years in service and seven in reserve, according to the report.

The vehicle has a shorter wheelbase for better maneuverability which allows it to get into tighter spots around the city, the report said.

Midwest—Stone Creek Valley Community Volunteer Fire Company, Petersburg, PA, pumper/tanker. Freightliner M2 106 crew cab and chassis; Cummins L9 360-hp engine; Hale Q-Max 1,500-gpm top-controls pump; APR polypropylene 2,000-gallon water tank; Newton 10-inch stainless-steel dump valve; All-Poly™ construction; full width and length hosebed. Dealer: Scott Boll, Midwest Fire, Luverne, MN.

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Ethan Myers
The Daily Astorian, Ore.
(TNS)

Mar. 1—WARRENTON — The fire department is pursuing several grants to replace essential pieces of aging equipment.

The City Commission on Tuesday unanimously authorized the fire department to apply for three grants through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

One grant would replace extrication equipment, known as the “Jaws of Life.”

The fire department’s equipment was purchased by the Hammond Fire Department in the 1980s and eventually relocated to Warrenton. While the tools work, they require yearly maintenance and the hydraulic fluid used is corrosive, Fire Chief Brian Alsbury said in a report to the city.

If the grant is acquired, the new extrication equipment — estimated to cost upward of $60,000 — would be battery-powered.

“The new systems are much fancier, much easier to move around and much easier to recharge and manipulate,” City Manager Esther Moberg told the City Commission.

Another grant would seek to replace an aging fire engine in Hammond.

E-2721, a 1988 fire engine, can no longer hold water because of a leaky tank and valves and is used as a backup. Alsbury said replacing the engine is long overdue.

“Hammond fire station currently only has one working engine and if that engine goes out of service during an emergency, Hammond would be unprotected until an engine arrived from Warrenton,” Alsbury said in his report, calling it a liability to the staff, fire department and city.

Alsbury also noted that the fire engine has a manual transmission, which only a few can operate.

The fire department is pursuing a Type 3 fire apparatus, estimated to cost around $460,000.

A third grant would add diesel exhaust removal systems to fire stations in Warrenton and Hammond.

The system in Warrenton has long been out of service and Hammond’s station was built without one. Prolonged exposure to diesel exhaust can increase risk of disease, Alsbury noted.

All three grants require matching funds from the city.

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