Fire hall purchases new truck

Times Reporter     

 

The Strathmore Fire Department (SFD) is looking to replace one of their trucks this year, and found a deal too good to pass up. They made a presentation at the March 5 town council meeting requesting the release of funds to purchase the truck. The current model was made in 1994 and is reaching the end of its 20-year lifespan. 

“We have been doing research and have found a demo model that’s on the market right now that we can get for a very reasonable price,” said Deputy Chief Terry Desserre. 

According to industry standards and fire underwriters’ insurance surveys, the life span of an apparatus is 20 years. During its first 15 years it is a first response apparatus, so it’s the first truck out that responds to the call. A fire truck that is in the 16 to 20-year time frame is now under a second call response status and is a spare, or a duplicate for the main vehicle. Anything over 20 years is the end of the lifespan completeness of that vehicle and it is due for replacement. 

The truck that the SFD has found is similar to the one talked about in October 2013. At that time $300,000 was the budget, which was about what the department expected to spend on a truck. Since then that same truck has gone up to $320,000. 

The truck the SFD has found was built in 2013, has been used as a demo model at tradeshow and is worth $400,000.

“The price that we have negotiated with them is down to $370,000. It has a light bar that’s on the top that it is worth $40,000 that was added as an extra and they’re willing to invoice us separately for that light bar so that would bring the truck cost down to $330,000,” said Desserre.

The SFD hope to pay the $40,000 for the light bar over a 90-day period. There is $20,000 being allocated from the volunteer firefighters association. The other $20,000 would come from an account that has been slowly added to from doing highway rescue with Alberta Transportation.  

To get that original truck, the one looked at last October, up to the same status as the one the SFD is looking at now, it would likely cost an additional $30,000 to $50,000. If council were to ask for Requests For Proposals to be sent out the build-out timeframe for another truck would be six months to a year away, six months being very optimistic, said SFD Captain Bas Owel. 

“It’s a financial opportunity for the Town of Strathmore to be able to replace that vehicle and put a brand new vehicle with another 20 year lifespan in that fire hall to serve the residents of this community as well as those who travel the highways around this community,” said Owel. 

“Seeing that our 1994 rescue that exists right now is at the end of its useful lifespan, for us the priority is to be able to continue to provide citizens of Strathmore with the same level of service,” said SFD Captain Jason McEwing. 

“A lot of people might not necessarily understand the importance of a rescue truck, but the purpose of a fire rescue truck is to support the first line apparatus, to provide the air cylinders, the tools in order to ventilate a structure, to provide power to fans to clear out any smoke, C02, any type of flammable gasses that exist and as well as on (motor vehicle collisions) provide the tools to be able to cut people out of vehicles as well as provide light.” 

The truck will be coming out of Phoenix and will be shipped to Abbotsford, BC. Once it gets here all of the tools from the 1994 truck can then be moved on to the new truck and it will be ready to go. There have been talks between the SFD and the town regarding the purchase of a new truck for a while. Councillor John Rempel said that the urgency that has been expressed did not put pressure on council to support it or not, something he wanted to make sure was clear. 

The urgency is not so much in the need for the truck, but in the need for this one because it will take a while to get a different one, and because of the cost savings if they purchase this one now. Council made, and approved, a motion to allow the fire department to spend $330,000 out of the approximate $407,000 in reserves to purchase the new truck. The new truck will be here and operable in a month.