After more than a year of waiting, Grantsville Volunteer Fire Department’s latest piece of equipment has finally arrived.
The pristine Rosenbauer Commander fire engine was ordered in July 2017 and it’s been a long wait since for Grantsville City Fire Chief Rob Critchlow. The fire engine arrived last Thursday, after it was driven from the South Dakota factory to Lake Point, then driven by the fire department to the station.
“Thursday was Christmas for me,” Critchlow said.
The fire engine is so new it doesn’t even have the department’s decals on it yet, but it was on display Saturday during an open house. More than 150 people attended the open house, according to Critchlow.
The decals arrive on Wednesday, the finishing touch on the $464,668 piece of equipment.
It’s the first new fire engine for the department since 1992 and will put the department’s 1983 engine into semi-retirement. Critchlow said the 1983 engine will be used as a supply vehicle, transporting tools and other necessities to fires.
The new engine includes seating for five firefighters, with the air tanks loaded directly into the seats for four firefighters. The 1992 engine can seat six, but only carries four air packs, which are carried on the side of the engine and must be put on at the scene.
It also has a 1,000-gallon water tank, which dwarfs the 750-gallon water tanks on the older engines. A new addition is 30 gallons of fire suppression foam, which is activated with a flip of a switch.
The pump operator will work from a raised platform where they can see nearly the entire fire scene, Critchlow said. The new engine also boasts an on-board generator and other improvements.
“It has so many more options that the other ones don’t have,” he said. “Fighting fires nowadays is different than fighting fires 30, 40 years ago. This truck has a lot of technology on it that will help us be more efficient with our water supply and how we do things.”
Critchlow and two other members of the department went to the Rosenbauer plant in South Dakota for the final inspection of the fire engine, which was purchased through Graham Fire Apparatus of Idaho.
Now that the engine has arrived, the fire department will begin training its 50 volunteer members on the use of the new equipment. Critchlow said he expects the department should have its firefighters trained on the new engine by Thanksgiving.