“New safety features were built into this truck due to the ongoing changes over the years, such as making the truck more visible with its striping pattern that is highly reflective, multiple cameras and an overall cleaner setup,” Douglas said.

The truck’s 750-gallon tank is able to pump 1,500 gallons per minute.

Additionally, the truck has more storage, interior ladders, filtration in each compartment to keep grime out, medical equipment compartments accessible from the inside and outside and other features.

It will be a couple of weeks before the truck is assigned to a station, Douglas said. “There are still little minor things we need to add to it, such as lettering, stocking it and other odds and ends,” he said.

Most fire engines last about 15 years, he said, but the new truck should last 20.

Rio Hondo Fire Department Fire Chief William Bilokury said the department got the truck in May. However, firefighters weren't able to use it because it needed some repairs.

The truck was also non-compliant with some state regulations.

Bilokury said the issues were resolved. He said firefighters were able to put the new unit to use over the weekend.

"It enhances our firefighting capability exponentially. We have more resources available here with this vehicle off road high water," he said. "And 1,000 gallons of water provides us with the capability to go fight in areas where we don't have water sources."

Shortly before midnight Jan. 23, Emmett Township Public Safety officers were called to the parking lot of Meijer at 6405 B Drive North in Harper Village on a reported vehicle fire, according to a news release from the department.

When officers arrived they were told that the fire was intentionally set and witnesses described a man they saw sticking a rag or shirt into the gas tank and starting it on fire.

Witnesses called 911 and attempted to extinguish the fire on their own, authorities said.

Witnesses were able to provide officers with descriptions of the man and the vehicle he was driving, and as fire crews finished extinguishing the car fire, a second fire was discovered by employees in the bathroom at the Meijer gas station.

Emmett Township units responded to that call as well, and witness descriptions of the man they saw matched the description of the man accused of setting the car fire.

Other units were called into the area when a suspect matching that description was found inside Walmart at 6020 B Drive North, suspected of attempting to commit a retail fraud. Emmett Police and Fire units responded, and found a man and a vehicle in the parking lot of Walmart, which both matched the descriptions of witnesses. But as officers approached the man, he drove off at a high rate of speed, ramming an Emmett DPS fire engine head-on, authorities said.

The fire truck was pulling into the Walmart parking lot to check for the possibility that the man had set another fire inside that store.