Just a few weeks short of three years, the new fire engine the Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory ordered in 2022 has arrived.
Fire Chief Joel Shilling told the WWFT Board Tuesday, “Back in July of 2022, we ordered an engine to replace the engine downtown, and it came to us on Friday.”
He said there’s still some training that has to go with it for all shifts. They’re moving some equipment over and getting the new engine ready to go. It’s anticipated that it’ll be a month or two before the new engine is in service.
“I’m looking forward to it. It’s a beautiful truck. I’m glad it’s here. It’s been a long time coming, and much needed,” Shilling said.
The engine is at station 17 on Main Street in downtown Warsaw.
In an interview with Shilling and Lt. Brandon Allen after the meeting at station 17, Allen said the production of the truck was backlogged because of Covid and supply issues just like everything else was the last few years. “They also said there was a large increase in volume of trucks being ordered that we just had to wait our turn,” Allen said.
Shilling said the new engine “will replace engine 17 that’s sitting in the bay now that they’re currently running. Then that truck will go down to our reserve truck, and our current reserve truck will either go out to the training center or be sold. I’m not sure which one we’re going to do yet.”
It’s all part of the fire territory’s capital asset plan on how equipment gets replaced and the timeframe for equipment replacement.
Station 17 keeps pretty busy, Shilling said, and the current truck runs on a lot of calls.
“It’s just wear and tear on the truck from running a lot of calls,” he stated.
Allen said right now they’re fit-testing equipment and finding the best and most efficient use of the space with the equipment that needs to go on the new engine.
“So, we’re putting flashlights in different compartments and stuff - stuff that we learned on that (current) truck, stuff that we space to do on this (new) truck that might change a little bit of our operational efficiency,” he said.
Shilling said the fire territory’s truck/equipment committee is chaired by Lt. Brent Fifer. “As the truck committee works through the process of building the truck, inspecting the truck and having what we need, this truck mirrors the truck that’s down south at station 15. With that, it just makes it a little easier as far as personnel training. As they move stations, they don’t have to learn a new apparatus, they’re almost identical. But there are some things that we learned through that truck that, ‘hey, this didn’t really work well,’ and then the committee made changes on this truck,” Shilling explained.
Allen said the space on the new truck is virtually the same footprint as the current truck. There’s some little minor detail changes, but otherwise the footprint, length, width, wheel base, etc. is “practically the identical truck.”
Shilling said it is a different manufacturer. The current engine is a Pierce, where the new one is a Smeal by Spartan.
“Just a different manufacturer and they have a little different configuration, but the cab space - there is more cab space. As we pile more and more equipment in it, whether it be EMS equipment or equipment for the guys that they need to do their jobs and respond to calls, it just takes more room,” Shilling said.
He said the new engine has been needed for a few years now. As soon as it’s available to start responding and going to calls, Shilling said it’s going to go in service.
When Brian Mayo was fire chief, he ordered a ladder truck. Shilling said he’s not sure when that will be in, but no delays are anticipated.
“Hopefully, we’ll get that in the timeframe that that was,” he said.
Allen said the last numbers he heard was that the chassis inspection would be in July with delivery hopefully by the end of 2025. He said a 100-foot aerial platform ladder truck is a more simple process because there’s less custom stuff you can do to them.
“They are a faster build from once you get started,” he stated.
As for the newly arrived engine, it doesn’t have a ladder but it has a 1,500-gallon-per-minute pump, Allen said.
“This is going to be the guy that’s doing most of the work,” he said, adding that it’ll be an initial arriving apparatus.
Shilling said once the new engine truck goes into service, the WWFT will probably do a traditional “push-in ceremony.” With everything on the truck, the public will be invited to come out and take a look at it and see what was purchased through their tax dollars.
“(We’ll) just explain to the public the benefits that we will get of having this truck and some of its different capabilities. We’ll have a ceremony to put it in service,” Shilling said.