New ladder truck ready to roll
Shannon Leclair – Times Reporter
Sunday May 2., the Strathmore Fire Department christened its newest addition to the fleet.
The Town of Strathmore needed a new ladder truck after the old one broke down.
Town council gave the fire department permission to buy a used ladder truck but the budget was $600,000. Three months went by and the department was not able to find anything in the price range.
“One of the dealerships came to us and said ‘ok, we’ll give you a very special deal on a very special ladder truck’,” said Muir Furzer, Fire Chief.
“We were able to buy it basically right off the assembly line.”
The new ladder truck, which was used as a demo, came from Appleton, New York, and cost $670,000.
“It has a lot of features on it you wouldn’t see on a basic ladder truck,” said Furzer, “Things like airbags, electric locks, heated mirrors, that sort of things.”
Because the trucks are so big and expensive a lot of fire halls don’t have it in the budget to add some features and will cut out what isn’t necessary.
The ladder is 105 ft and the hose is located up the middle of it, instead of the firefighters having to carry the hose up the ladder. The nozzle also rotates, circularly and horizontally, the ladder rotates 360 degrees.
Patricia Nyberg had the pleasure of going in the bucket at the top of the ladder, “It was pretty incredible actually.”
“You hardly felt movement, when up there, and it was windy. I thought it was going to be like a rollercoaster experience, but there was hardly any movement,” said Nyberg.
The next replacement the fire department is planning will be a rescue truck in 2013.