The Newtown (PA) Fire Association recently housed Rescue 45, its $716,000 new rescue pumper, and dedicated it to one of its longtime members.

The apparatus was dedicated to firefighter Dave Pannepacker, who has volunteered with the company for more than 60 years and was given the honor of sitting in the passenger seat as the new engine was pushed into the station.

He applied to the fire association on Aug. 6, 1956 but wasn’t voted in until Sept. 30, 1957, as there was a waiting list to join, according to thereporteronline.com.

A bronze plaque on the side of the apparatus acknowledges Pannepacker and his years of dedication.

The department hadn’t purchased a new apparatus in 11 years, and, when put into service over the summer, it replaced a 20-year-old rescue pumper that was recently sold to the Mayfield Hose Company in upstate PA. Most of its onboard powered equipment runs off batteries, the report says.

The purchase was made possible in large part from proceeds from Newtown Beerfest, which takes place in September at the Stocking Works.

The Rensselaer (IN) Volunteer Fire Department is hosting a push-in ceremony for its $1.47 million ladder truck on Saturday, November 20 from 2 to 4 p.m., reports newsbug.info.

The apparatus is an ArrowXT 100-foot ascendant tower truck with blacked-out features, according to the report. It will feature red and black colors on the cab door to represent Rensselaer Central High School’s colors.

The mid-mount platform, the report says, has a low height—10’10”—so that it can fit underneath bridges; its length is 42’4”. It boasts a 2,000-gpm pump and a 300-gallon tank.

Firefighters must attend a three-day training class to learn the ropes.

The department sold its 2003 ladder truck to the Brook/Iroquois Township Fire Department over the summer, the report says.

Branch Township (MI) officials hosted a public hearing Monday ahead of the building of a new facility that will house both township officials and the fire department, reports shorelinemedia.com.

The Branch Township Fire Department, located at 6697 U.S. 10, is in a building in dire need of space, officials say; the department’s water tankers need to be filled to weigh them down enough to fit through the doors.

Officials say, in anticipation of building a new facility, the township has set aside $100,000 since 2013. They add that the township received from a resident about 10 acres of property across U.S. 10 from Wanna Buy Sheds, which has been partly cleared of trees.

The plan is to build an 80-by-100-foot building on the site with township offices and fire department offices on one side of the building and fire apparatus on the other half. A mezzanine would be above the offices for training, the report says.

To fund the project the township is considering a 15-year millage at 1 mill; the township has an estimate of $800,000 for the building itself. Officials took that estimate to a bank for financing options, and they left with the 15-year term with an anticipated preliminary interest rate of between 1 3/4 and 2 1/4%, according to the report.

Officials say there may be a second public hearing on the project in the spring, well before a potential vote in August 2022.

By Alan M. Petrillo

The Phoenix (AZ) Fire Department is on a mission to mitigate firefighter sleep-deprivation issues in its existing fire stations by renovating dorm areas, and in new stations, designing sleeping spaces and running customized alerting systems to combat the problem.

“The old open dorm space went away a long time ago,” says Jim Zwerg, Phoenix Fire’s architect and facilities manager. “When the city of Phoenix adopted the International Building Code (IBC), changing from the Universal Building Code, all of our stations went to individual dorm spaces because the IBC considered sleeping spaces in fire stations under a residential designation, which meant individual dorm rooms for firefighters.”

Zwerg points out that after the market crash in 2009 and 2010, most of the renovations to Phoenix’s fire stations were put on hold—until 2014 when Phoenix renovated Station 33 with the aim of changing its dorms to help mitigate the issue of sleep deprivation. “Stations that are in proximity to the freeways, (Interstate 10 and Interstate 17, as well as several state freeways), and those in heavy call volume areas, some of their companies are going out every 15 to 20 minutes on a call,” Zwerg says. “A firefighter on a 24-hour shift doesn’t get a lot of sleep in those stations.”

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