The Danielson Borough Council is exploring the best way to pay for a new $1 million fire truck for the Danielson Fire Department.

It will spend the next month researching the issue ahead of a Feb. 17 public hearing on the expenditure, council member Lynn LaBerge said.

The department plans to buy the bucket/tower truck through South Dakota-based Pierce Manufacturing, the same company that is building a new ladder truck for the Dayville Fire Company. And because the purchase of both trucks would fall within a certain window, both departments are eligible for cost discounts, LaBerge said, though no firm discount numbers were available.

The tower truck, if bought, would replace a 26-year-old model that department Chief Gerry Marcheterre said has reached the end of its useful life.

Marcheterre said there will likely have to be some minor reinforcement work made to the station floor before a new truck is moved in. He said this latest purchase would be the last the department needs for the foreseeable future, as two other fire vehicles are both less than 5 years old.

In December, Dayville Fire District residents approved using $975,000 from a non-recurring truck fund to order a 107-foot ladder truck, which will also serve as a department engine vehicle.

Officials several years ago borrowed from the truck fund to build a new training facility. Those funds have since been repaid, allowing the district to pay for the vehicle with cash, potentially saving tens of thousands in retail cost and interest. Officials said the existing ladder truck, a 25-year-old model, will be sold, likely to a community that can't afford to purchase a new truck.

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Four Copper Mountain firefighters are lucky they were not injured after a semi-truck slammed into their fire truck along Interstate 70.

Sam Parker with the Copper Mountain Metropolitan District says the Copper Mountain Fire Department responds to many wrecks along I-70. Earlier this week, they were on the interstate near Vail Pass parking their fire truck behind a state trooper who was responding to a crash.

Suddenly, a tanker truck lost control and slammed into the fire truck with four firefighters inside.

Firefighters said that had the truck not been there, the state trooper responding to the wreck and the tow-truck driver may have been hit by that semi-truck.

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Modern firefighting vehicles are fitted to perform a wide range of tasks, of which the most important is battling major fire. They come with pumps, hydraulic ladders, tanks that can hold roughly 400 to 500 gallons of water--enough to put out a vehicle fire--and a slew of other equipment. They also have enough space to transport up to eight firefighters.

Yet fighting actual fire makes up only a small portion of a firefighter's job. Of the 31.9 million calls routed to all U.S. fire departments in 2013, only 1.2 million (or about 4 percent) were fire-related, according to the latest data from the National Fire Protection Association. Most of the time they're attending to other emergencies, including road accidents -- the very ones city street designers try to prevent, as Mother Nature Network points out. Still others take on "eclectic" roles.

Overall, America is behind the curve when it comes to rethinking the fire truck. As Lloyd Alter writes at Mother Nature Network, Europe, where street lanes tend to be tighter, has a line of compact fire trucks that perform the same tasks as those in the U.S. but are far more maneuverable. Watch as two fire engines--one from the U.S. and the other from Europe--drive around an obstacle of cones:

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APPLETON, WI—Pierce Manufacturing Inc., an Oshkosh Corporation company, has announced an order for six Pierce® Dash® CF custom fire and emergency vehicles from the Central County Fire & Rescue Fire Protection District (CCFR) in Saint Peters, Missouri. The order represents a full fleet replacement of Pierce vehicles that have served the department since 2002. The fire truck purchase includes five pumpers and one aerial platform, and all will be delivered in late 2016.

“We’re very excited that CCFR has once again selected Pierce, and has chosen the innovative Pierce Dash CF custom chassis for this complete fleet replacement order,” says Jim Johnson, Oshkosh Corporation executive vice president and president of the Fire & Emergency segment and Pierce Manufacturing.  “CCFR’s decision to stay with Pierce and go with the Dash CF apparatus speaks volumes about our products, our people and the team at Schuhmacher Fire Equipment.”

“Each of our fire stations will receive a new Pierce Dash CF apparatus, and these new vehicles will improve our performance and emergency response capabilities, while enhancing firefighter safety,” says Brian Ochs, CCFR assistant fire chief and member of a nine-person apparatus committee. “We really like the Dash CF’s open cab configuration—that’s the big thing that interested our committee. You have an open area for the engineer, the captain, and far more room for firefighters. It’s an incredible cab.”

The Pierce Dash CF fire apparatus features a tilting cab-forward design that repositions the engine rearward and down low between the frame rails, with an open interior configuration that helps firefighters better prepare when arriving on scene. The vehicle increases driver and officer interior cab space, improves visibility and serviceability, and features a compact easy-to-maneuver wheelbase.

Each of the five identical pumpers will feature a Detroit DD13 470-hp engine, TAK-4® independent front suspension, side roll and frontal impact protection systems, and the all-new Command Zone™ multiplex system. The vehicles also will include 1,500-gpm Pierce PUC pumps, 600-gallon water tanks, Husky™ 12 dual-agent foam systems, and low-mounted crosslays. 

“The Dash CF is a compact truck with a shorter, more maneuverable wheelbase, and yet can carry as much or even more equipment than our previous apparatus,” adds Chief Ochs. “Plus, the ergonomics are excellent, with everything lower to the ground so firefighters don’t have to climb up onto a truck to reach equipment or hose.”

The Dash CF 100-foot aerial platform will be equipped with a DD13 525-hp engine, TAK-4 independent front suspension, and side roll and fron