Mayor Tim Mahoney is proposing the potentially cost-saving measure after learning about trends in other cities at a recent conference.

"Is there a way of doing some of our runs with a little less manpower, in a sense, and the manpower being the fire trucks?" he said in a recent interview, sitting alongside Fire Chief Steve Dirksen.

Mahoney has tasked Dirksen with creating a pilot program, to be run out of the downtown station, to see whether using pickups can make the department more efficient.

This move comes after a record number of fire department calls last year. Fargo firefighters had 10,711 calls for service in 2017, rising steadily from 6,262 just five years earlier.

The bulk of the 2017 calls — more than 6,400 — were emergency medical calls in which the firefighters' skills, not necessarily a fire engine, were needed.

It was too early to determine if the $300,000 fire truck is salvageable. He said that it appeared that the truck had suffered some frame damage. The vehicle carries about 750 gallons of water as well as 25 gallons of firefighting foam.

Dozens of volunteer firefighters were at the scene to help clean up and unload the year-old truck’s equipment which will also have to be checked for damage.

The new trucks were just delivered and will go into service immediately.

They were purchased to help with the aging equipment used by the city's firefighters.

South Charleston Mayor Frank Mullins said, “They give us dependable vehicles to work with. These are state of the art … They have modern technology available to our firefighters to use. They have all the safety features. It’s an upgrade that we needed and again, it worked out for us very well financially … so it’s been a win-win for us all the way around. Good morale booster, too.”

The new piece is the second of three to be christened in two weeks, was paid for with $484,000 from the city’s Community Development Agency.

“There’s been no stronger ally for us in recent years than Mr. Michael Dion,” Lynch said, recognizing the head of the CDA.

Fall River Mayor Jasiel F. Correia II told the audience, composed mostly of firefighters, that his administration continues to demonstrate a commitment to public safety he pledged during his first campaign.