The system is called Active911 and involves software loaded on smart phones and tablets. The fire department is in the process of mounting iPads in fire trucks to accommodate the new software.  

As an example, let's say there is an accident on the Sheid-Hopper Bypass. A witness with a cell phone calls 911 and says the accident is on the bypass "near" College Street.

The 911 system pings the person's cell phone and gets the address of the nearest cell tower. When they dispatch the Mountain Home Fire Department, the address of that cell tower will populate on the iPads in the trucks and on any firefighter's smart phone.

The 2017 Ford F-550 rescue truck was being driven by firefighter John Dear, who was responding to a medical call on Susan Drive to assist North Star Critical Care, according to Chief Bill Bennett.  

When Dear turned from Annesley Road onto Y&O Road, the truck suddenly entered a ditch, traveling several yards before going airborne across a driveway and landing on its side in the ditch. Both airbags were deployed, and the truck had visible damage, but Bennett said the insurance company will have to assess the damage to the vehicle, which he said has only been in service since the beginning of the year.

The city said a crew of three firefighters were training in the rear parking lot of the Cash Corner fire station when the truck’s aerial ladder made contact with some power lines along Skillin Street, damaging portions of the truck’s electrical system, the city said in a written statement.

 

The three firefighters who were training with the truck were able to escape the vehicle and extinguish the flames.  

The ladder controls were also damaged by the electrical current. No one was hurt.

The dimensions are impressive, too. It is 42 feet long, 12 feet, 4 inches tall, weighs a hefty 70,800 pounds and has an aerial ladder that extends 107 feet into the air.  

“It continues the benchmark,” Fire Chief Jim Smith said of the city’s commitment to public safety while showing off the new truck on Tuesday.  

Smith explained that the truck’s 107-foot-high boom arm is needed to fight high-rise fires that could strike the taller hotels and condominiums in town. It will also give firefighters the ability to hover over homes and other smaller buildings and douse them with a spray of water.