GARDNER — A new year, a new truck for the Gardner Fire Department.
The department welcomed a newly purchased fire truck at the station on Dec. 29, according to Chief Richard Ares, who said the vehicle would be replacing an engine that has served the GFD well for three decades.
“This is (the new) Engine 3, and we’ve had the previous Engine 3 since 1989, so it’s 30 years old,” Ares said.
The new vehicle offers firefighters a number of upgrades from the previous engine, including the ability to carry more water to the scenes of fires.
“This one has a 1,000-gallon water tank, which will be helpful to us for the areas of town, such as out by Clark Street or up past the college, that don’t have hydrants,” Ares said. “We’ll be arriving on-scene with more water than we currently have.” Ares said the current Engine 3 carries a tank with a water capacity of 750 gallons.
An upgraded truck was something the department had needed for a while, Ares said, especially since the older vehicle was unable to meet current emissions standards.
“We were well overdue,” he said. “The usual lifespan (of a fire truck) is about 25 years, according to national standards, so we were roughly five years over that (deadline),” he explained.
The new vehicle, which was manufactured by Sutphen, cost nearly half-million dollars, but Ares said 90 percent of that amount was paid for by a FEMA grant that he had been applying for over the past several years. The total bill to the city was $49,800.
“It’s a very competitive grant, especially for fire apparatus,” Ares said. “I actually applied for this grant for three years in a row before last year when we were awarded it. The city only had to come up with 10 percent of the total cost.”
In addition to the ability to carry more water, the new vehicle offers upgrades over the previous truck including increased reliability, a 25-gallon foam tank, permanent hose fixtures, and an enclosed cab with a raised roof. That means firefighters will have more room to maneuver when putting on gear in the truck.
“For example, if the guys are going to a water or ice rescue, they can begin getting suited up on the way to the call, which we weren’t really able to do before,” Ares said.
Mechanics were busy installing tools and equipment on the new vehicle, Ares said.
“You don’t want to just throw things onto (the new vehicle), you want everything placed where it will be most efficiently used,” he said.
Ares added that crews will spend some time training on the new truck before it makes its public debut, but he said that it should only be a few weeks before the vehicle is used on an official call. The pump on the new vehicle is similar to the one the department currently uses, so Ares said most of the training will likely focus on getting drivers used to maneuvering the larger vehicle through the city’s streets.
“I hope to have it in service by the end of the month,” Ares said.
