Fire departments from Trimble, Loretto, Logan, Crane Hill, Good Hope, Dodge City, Bremen, and Cool Springs are working together. The departments recently purchased a pontoon boat that needs improvements before it can be used to respond to emergencies. The boats will be used to respond to crashes, house and boat fires, medical calls and other emergencies.   

Logan Fire and Rescue chief, Toby Bates, says the boats are needed to help keep the community safe.

Fire Chief Eddie Bell asked the board of works on Wednesday for more than $1.5 million to purchase three firetrucks, one for transporting scuba gear and dive equipment for water rescues, one rescue unit used for entrapments during wrecks, and one 77-foot aerial firetruck.

 

The board unanimously passed two requests: One for the scuba truck, essentially a box truck, for $12,000 from Fire Service, Inc., and another for a rescue truck and an aerial unit for $1,561,014, also from Fire Service, Inc.

 

There was some question about whether the purchases should have gone through city council instead of the board of works.

Bell said after the meeting the department also wanted

Maintenance is “very important – it helps us to continue to do our job,” said Mike Skinner, a firefighter with the Meridian Fire Department who joined other department personnel during a pump test on a truck Wednesday at Bonita Lakes Park in Meridian.

The tests, which involve running water at various pressures to check for problems, are conducted annually on each of the department’s 12 pumpers, said Chris Clark, a fire apparatus technician with the MFD.

Each of the new Pierce ladder trucks cost about $1.2 million, not counting the equipment that goes on board, said Matt Cirullo, equipment repair technician for the department. Much of the equipment needed to completely outfit the vehicles, such as axes, bolt cutters and fans used to remove smoke from buildings, was already on hand.  

The trucks were dedicated at a Wednesday-morning ceremony in downtown Albany. One will replace a ladder truck that will be maintained as a reserve truck, giving the fire department one additional vehicle in regular use.

The remote control, which allows a firefighter to control the unit from the ground, has a camera and allows the controller to operate all functions, including the fire hose, from up to a half-mile away, Cirullo said.