Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District has received two new fire engines and one new ambulance in the last couple of weeks.
The ambulance is part of the normal ambulance rotation, Fire Chief Mike Beaver said. The department replaces an ambulance every two years. The new vehicle replaces an old ambulance that has 160,000 miles on it and was starting to cost the district “a bunch of money to maintain.”
The department’s newest ambulance has close to 70,000 miles, and a third has more than 100,000 miles, Beaver said. The district has four ambulances, including a four-wheel-drive vehicle that is nearing 50,000 miles.
The four-wheel-drive is used when necessary and as a third- or fourth-out ambulance, Beaver said.
The engines were paid for as part of a bond measure passed by district voters in 2006.
One of the new Pierce fire engines will be placed at the Foster substation, Beaver said. The 1991 Pierce stationed there will move to Cascadia to replace a 1976 engine, which is underpowered and can barely get to 50 mph over flat ground. The old engine also has a tailboard, on which firefighters ride, while the newer engine moving up from Foster has cab space for firefighters.
The second engine replaces a 1996 Pierce, which was the last new engine purchased by the department until last year when the department bought a new ladder truck, Beaver said.
The 1996 Pierce will move to Crawfordsville, Beaver said. The 1981 Western States engine at Crawfordsville will go to reserve status, improving the district’s insurance rating.
The district will sell the old Cascadia engine, Beaver said. It’s useful to logging companies and farmers, who can stage the engine where they work for fire watch, something that does not require rapid response to fires.
“We’ve had some interest already,” Beaver said. Old engines usually sell for around $5,000, he said.
The new engines cost $360,000 each, Beaver said. The bond still has money to allow the district to purchase a new tender.
Once the new engines go into service, sometime in the next two weeks, the department will decide what kind of tender it needs and order it, Beaver said. The tender will cost around $280,000.
When the department is finished, every station will have an upgraded engine, Beaver said, and all four will have a water tender, which will also help improve the district’s insurance rating. The rating is assignd by the Insurance Services Office, an organization that rates cities and fire departments based on water supply, fire apparatus, fire training and personnel numbers. The ISO’s rating determines the cost of commercial and residential fire insurance throughout the nation.
An August 2005 ISO rating report indicated the district needed to make some improvements in its equipment to maintain its rating.
The district is planning to break out the new gear and host an open house prior to the end of the school year, Beaver said. The upgrades “are huge for Sweet Home,” he said.
Lebanon also has three new pieces of apparatus and Albany two, Beaver said. “It’s good for the valley here to have all these new pieces of fire apparatus.”