The Spokane Valley Fire Department is asking voters to renew a four-year tax on the Feb. 14 ballot. Fire officials say the maintenance and operations levy is essential to the operations of the department’s 10 stations that cover 75 square miles. The needs of the department continue to increase, said Fire Chief Frank Soto Jr.
- PUB DATE: 2/3/2023 5:30:00 PM - SOURCE: Spokane Spokesman-Review - Metered Site

A fire on a fryer inside the kitchen of a McDonald's restaurant located off Kennewick Ave and Highway 395 Friday morning could have turned much worse. That's because Kennewick Fire Department says a group of quick thinking employees at the restaurant were able to snuff the fire before it got out of hand.
- PUB DATE: 2/3/2023 3:58:02 PM - SOURCE: KONA-AM 610 Kennewick

The Spokane Valley Fire Department unveiled its new fire truck Tuesday during a push-in ceremony.

The new fire truck will replace the current engine 4, which has been in service since 2003 and has more than 100,000 miles on it.

According to SVFD, a group of firefighters helped during the construction of the new fire truck to meet all the needs of the fire department, krem.com reported. 

Firefighters made trips to Appleton (WI) in the last two years to perform a pre-construction approval and final inspection of the new fire truck, the report said. SVFD also delivered three new engines in June 2022.

Engine 4 joins Engine 9 as the second of three new engines that will replace older engines in the SVFD. The third engine is set to go into service later this year, according to the report.

Brooklyn Park plans to ask the Minnesota legislature to help finance a rebuild of the Central Fire Station for an estimated $25.7 million, hometownsource.com reported.

The Brooklyn Park City Council approved the project as part of its legislative priority list for the upcoming year on Jan. 17, the report said.

Fire Chief John Cunningham told the council that all of the city’s fire stations are outdated, and were designed for a paid-on-call staffing model rather than the full-time staffing model used by the department, the report said.

The Central Fire Station, located at 5700 85th Avenue North, is the largest firehouse in the department’s hub-and-spoke model.

The design and engineering work for the proposed new firehouse have not been completed, but Cunningham said the city would likely tear down the former Hennepin County Library building near the Community Activity Center and relocate the station north to that site, according to the report.

The new firehouse would be home to the fire department administration, the fire marshal division, a fire and EMS training area, and the city’s secure Emergency Operations Center located on-site, the report said.

The North Wilkesboro Fire Department has a new aerial fire truck, JournalPatriot.com reported.

The 2022 Pierce Manufacturing aerial mid-mount truck, which arrived Jan. 19, has several advantages over the department’s 1987 rear-mount truck, according to a fire official, the report said.

The truck’s aerial tower extends 100 feet in five telescoping sections, which the fire official said is 15 feet more than the 1987 truck. The additional height provides the new capability of pumping water on Wilkes Towers from a point above the structure. Wilkes Towers is the town’s tallest building, the report said.

The truck has a Cummins 500hp engine, 300-gallon water tank and can pump 2,000 gallons of water per minute, the report said. It has a Stokes basket mounted on the bucket at the end of the tower and a 10-foot-long ladder can also be mounted there for accessing tops of buildings and elsewhere.

The fire official said the new aerial truck cost $1.4 million and was funded with a $944,000 Federal Emergency Management Agency grant, according to the report. Remaining funds came from the town.

The 1987 aerial truck will be put up for sale, the report said.