#9 11 fire truck graveyard how to

“Whether you’re 10,000 or 100,000 in population, it’s always tough to decide what the cities will spend their money on,” he said. “For the large departments, I would assume it’s easier to rotate stock, but for us it’s not.”īast added that even cities with more than 100,000 in population are in the same boat. The problem with two brand-new pumpers is that the city expects those to last, but they end up falling apart around the same time.

We won’t get the new pumper, and we can make that pumper last another year.’”īut one year, he said, the Easton fleet got so bad that they were able to purchase two pumpers at once. “Sometimes it’s our fault because we say we can make do. “You never know when public works is going to need something or there’s a major project that pops up,” he said. Bast says he doesn’t know where the next truck will be coming from. The department is getting a new rescue pumper next year, and the city is taking out a bond to pay for the truck, but a local college will be making the payment. That one’s going to be replaced,” Bast said. “The 1998 pumper is really nickel-and-diming us. They have two other reserve pumpers - another 1998 and a 1995. However, delayed funding over the years resulted in sporadic replacement.Įaston’s frontline includes 2012, 20 pumpers. The Easton Fire Department developed a written plan for pumper and aerial truck replacement based upon a projected life span and fleet size. As a result, they’re forced to repair existing units even though maintenance costs exceed potential replacement costs. The choice of buying new doesn’t exist due to an even smaller operating budget. Some smaller departments and most volunteer departments don’t have any other option than to drive an apparatus until they no longer can. But by the same token, maintenance and repair costs can eat up at least half the purchase price for replacement rigs - sometimes more.įor example, if you spend $100,000 on repairs and maintenance over the next five years to keep an apparatus in service, then you’ll be spending $20,000 each year, not to mention the costs of updating outdated equipment.Īs a result, you may be better off spending $300,000 on a new apparatus that could last at least 20 years.īut every department’s needs and funding issues are unique. Some fire departments will keep an old apparatus because the price of a new engine is too much. “It seemed that’s the way it was going, but city administrators move on rather quickly … It seemed in no time that we were back to square one with, ‘You’ll drive it until it’s done, and then we’ll move on.’” “It was discussed that every three to four years we would replace our pumpers and every 10 years we would replace our ladder trucks,” Bast said. But other concerns quickly took priority, pushing the fire department purchases to the back of the line. When the new city administrator and finance director came on board, Bast said it made sense to them that the department had to get on a schedule to replace their apparatuses. We probably have more computers in our rigs than what they did to go to the moon.” “Today, everything is switches, relays, LED lights, and we now have computers. There were no computers on fire trucks the electronics were very simple. He explained that this expectation doesn’t hold true anymore, due in part to all the electronics now included on an apparatus. Bast said, for the most part, city officials believed a fire pumper could last the department 30 years. The department has two reserve pumpers, and if their ladder goes out of service they rely on mutual aid.īast, who has been with the department just under 27 years and served as chief for 10 years, has written plans that try to hold true to a replacement schedule, but the issue is the availability of money. Three platoons of 14 firefighters at three fire stations run three pumpers and an aerial and command truck every day. The Easton Fire Department, a career department, has 44 members, including the chief and deputy chief.

#9 11 fire truck graveyard how to

The best ways to evaluate and buy new or used fire apparatus, as well as how to restore those antiques