Area towns get new fire trucks

Two fire departments are excited this Fire Prevention Week for the resources they have to protect both life and property, especially because they’ve added new fire trucks recently to their fleet.

Greenfield Fire Department welcomed a 3,000-gallon pumper/tanker to their fleet a little more than a month ago. Just last week, Orient Fire Department took possession of a new 2,000-gallon pumper truck.

Greenfield Fire Chief TJ Oder said the truck his department got has already shown them that you can’t ever have enough water at a fire scene.

“It’s been a pretty big asset to have. We’ve had it out on a controlled burn on a house, and Orient was there too. That ability to take our two tankers and a pumper, we sat there with water. We didn’t need it, but we still had it,” Oder said. “It’s been out for a combine fire and a field fire. Right now, we haven’t had anything real big where we’ve really, really needed it. It’s nice to have the ability to have that much water sitting there with you in case they need it.”

On their new truck, which is on a tandem axle Freightliner chassis, are tools such as ladders and other general firefighting tools, chainsaws and two air packs for firefighters. It has numerous different fittings on it so that the truck can be utilized in multiple ways. This truck will mainly be used for structure fire calls.

Orient Fire Captain Mike Swanson, who was chief when their new truck was ordered, said that their truck is also a considerable improvement from what they had in the past.

“The tank’s bigger — the old one would hold 1,250 gallons and this one will hold 2,000 — and it’s a four-door cab, so instead of getting two in there we can take four. Other than that, it’s the same, it’s just a lot newer and a lot more reliable,” Swanson said. “Our old truck was getting close to 25 years old. It was a good truck, but as they get older, they start having problems.”

Vehicles like these aren’t cheap. Both fire departments expressed how grateful they are for the support they received in purchasing them.

Greenfield’s truck was a purchase done jointly between the City of Greenfield and the local rural fire association. Orient’s truck was benefited by a Schildberg Foundation grant and MidAmerican Energy.