Last week, firefighters and personnel from the Pinal Rural Fire and Medical District received training on their new fire truck, Brush 625.

  It was purchased with funds from two grants, The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety and the Arizona Department of Agriculture.

  “This truck will be utilized to respond to incidents on and off the highway,” said PRFMD Chief Bobby Apodaca.

  Jeff Gilbert from WW Williams, Fire Truck Sales and Service, was on hand to show the firefighters how to use the truck’s pumping system.

The $950,000 tiller truck, custom-built by Spartan / Smeal, carries an aerial ladder over 100-feet long, capable of reaching tall buildings in Kingston such as the Ulster County Office Building, and the soon -to-be built HealthAlliance Hospital tower.

It was paid for with a municipal bond.

There are also tiller trucks in fire departments in Suffern, Haverstrawm Hastings-on-Huson and two in Nyack.

Tiller trucks are so long, that a second driver is needed to steer from a cab on the back of the vehicle, in tandem with the primary operator driving from the front.

There weren’t any flashing lights, sirens, bells or whistles deployed as the new vehicle rounded the corner of Schwenk Drive for the first time, and silently pulled into the station.

The $950,000 tiller truck carries an aerial ladder over 100-feet long, capable of reaching tall buildings in Kingston such as the Ulster County Office Building, and the soon -to-be built HealthAlliance Hospital tower.

It was paid for with a municipal bond.

There are also tiller trucks in fire departments in Suffern, Haverstrawm Hastings-on-Huson and two in Nyack.

There weren’t any flashing lights, sirens, bells or whistles deployed as the new vehicle rounded the corner of Schwenk Drive for the first time, and silently pulled into the station.

Troopers said the ambulance went off the side of the road, overcorrected, and then traveled into the path of an oncoming car, hitting it head-on.  

The ambulance was on its way to a call when the crash happened and there were no patients onboard. The two paramedics inside were OK, according to officials.