The Spring Hill Board of Mayor and Aldermen examined designs for the proposed Fire Station 4 this week, which staff promises to be a much-needed upgrade to the fire department’s growing needs, ColumbiaDailyHerald.com reported.

The need for a new station has been in the works for many years, beginning around 2018-2019, the report said. The station is expected to open and be fully operational at the corner of Duplex and Buckner roads by November of 2024.

The new 17,023 square-foot station’s proposed design, created by Renaissance Group consulting firm, will keep the traditional fire hall look and feel, but with a whole lot more resources available for staff, as well as office space for Spring Hill Police personnel, the report said. This includes individual dorm rooms for staff, four drive-thru bays, spaces for training and an in-house gym.

Other features include a commercial kitchen, as well as a conference room that doubles as an emergency storm shelter, according to the report.

The project is expected to break ground in October, with a construction cost estimated at $6 million, the report said.

The Brewton City Council approved $668,000 Monday for the purchase of a new fire engine for the fire department to replace a 25-year-old engine still in service, brewtonstandard.com reported.

“This will be a much needed addition to our fleet! Stay tuned for pictures in the near future as customization nears completion. We would like to thank the City Council for their continued commitment to public safety,” according to a Brewton Fire Department Facebook post.

A city official said the delivery of the 2023 fully-equipped truck would take 45-60 days, according to the report.

A fire official said the price of the stock truck was the best he had seen, the report said.

The Atlantic City Fire Department has added a brand-new fire truck to the fleet, the department’s fourth new apparatus in the last four years, the city announced in a news release. Engine 3 will primarily serve Atlantic City’s Westside and Venice Park neighborhoods.

Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small, Sr., ACFD Chief Scott Evans, ACFD Union President John Varallo and members of the ACFD, as per tradition when a new apparatus enters the fleet, pushed Engine 3 into Fire Station 3 at Indiana and Grant Avenues, where the truck will be stationed.

“The men and women of the Atlantic City Fire Department can expect more reliability with this new engine,” said Chief Evans. “Having that confidence that your equipment will work well in an emergency situation goes a long way. We just want to thank Mayor Small who, since taking over office, has made sure this department has the necessary tools to properly do our jobs and protect Atlantic City.”

Engine 3 was built 18 months ago and replaces a 20-year-old engine. The ACFD is expecting three additional new engines to be delivered in the coming months.

By Alan M. Petrillo

Hagerstown-Jefferson Township (IN) Volunteer Fire Department, a small fire department in a rural Indiana community, was having difficulty staffing its apparatus during the day, a situation that many volunteer fire departments around the country are experiencing. The department needed to replace its walk-in rescue truck, and one of its engines was getting elderly, so it decided to combine two trucks into one and buy a new rescue-pumper. The department chose Toyne to build that truck.

Rick Cole, Hagerstown-Jefferson Township’s chief, points out that when the department responds to motor vehicle accidents it has to run two rigs, its rescue and a pumper to the call, but with the new Toyne rescue-pumper, it only has to staff a single vehicle. “Our new Toyne rescue-pumper carries all the rescue equipment that we had on the old rescue, like our TNT hosed hydraulic extrication tools, a cutter, spreader, two rams and a combi tool, and also our Holmatro struts,” Cole says.

Jeff Murray, fire truck salesman for Donley Safety, who sold the Toyne rescue-pumper to Hagerstown-Jefferson Township, says the rig is built on a Spartan Metro Star LFD chassis and cab with a 10-inch raised roof and seating for six firefighters, five of them in SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus) seats. The rescue-pumper is powered by a 400-horsepower (hp) Cummins L9 diesel engine and an Allison 3000 EVS automatic transmission, and has a Waterous CS 1,250-gallon per minute (gpm) pump, a UPF Poly® 750-gallon water tank, a 25-gallon foam cell, and a FoamPro 2001 Class A foam proportioning system.

Cole says one of the department’s objectives was to make the rescue-pu