April 28, 2023
By: Dwayne Page
Time for a new city fire truck?
Smithville Fire Chief Charlie Parker said the City of Smithville should be making a commitment now to purchase a new fire engine to replace the oldest truck in the fleet, a 2001 model (Engine 2).
Chief Parker made his request during Monday night’s city budget workshop of the mayor and aldermen.
Aside from the fact that the 2001 fire truck is 22 years old, Chief Parker said it is beginning to have performance issues.
“Since January, we have documented 10 times that the pump on Engine 2 would not engage. They have worked on this issue 2 times this year and once last year,” he said.
Chief Parker is asking that the city purchase a Pierce PUC Pumper currently priced at $1,299,822 which includes loose equipment and that payments be made for it under a 5-year lease purchase plan. According to Chief Parker, the city’s first payment of $281,575 could be made upon placing the order, with 4 following annual payments. By acting now, Chief Parker said the purchase price would be locked in and the city could qualify for prepayment discounts since it would be up to 3 years before delivery of the new fire truck.
Another reason for acting now, Chief Parker said is because the cost of a new fire truck is going to be even higher later.
“The price has gone up over $300,000 just since last year and it is not looking like it is going down anytime soon,” he said.
In addition to the 2001 fire truck, the Smithville Fire Department has in its fleet a 2018 rescue pumper and a 2012 ladder truck.
Along with the factors of safety, liability, and reliability, Chief Parker said part of the reason for keeping city fire department equipment and apparatus up to date is to maintain a good Insurance Service Organization (ISO) rating so that residents are able to take advantage of lower homeowner insurance premiums.
“ISO is an organization that gathers information about a community and gives a rating that most insurance companies use to base their annual insurance premiums on for Smithville,” said Chief Parker.
“We strive to attain the lowest IS0 rating and to follow as many of the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) rules, standards, and guidelines we can. Following these standards keeps our firefighters and citizens safer and these rules are what we would be held accountable to if things were to go wrong concerning liability issues,” said Chief Parker.
“As per our last ISO audit on May 21, 2012, Smithville has a 5/5x rating which is based on several things from hydrants, water flow, personnel, dispatch, training, and needed fire flow,” he said.
According to the ISO classifications, in order to have a sufficient water delivery rate for a fire, we have a needed fire flow of 3,000 gallons per minute. Currently, our fire engines are rated at 1,750 and 1,250 gallons per minute, which means we need 2 engines to reach and maintain this needed fire flow”.
Citing NFPA (advisory) guidelines for first line and reserve fire apparatus, Chief Parker said “to maximize firefighter capabilities and minimize risk of injuries, it is important that fire apparatus be equipped with the latest safety features and capabilities. Apparatus more than 15 years old may not contain all of the safety upgrades as the current NFPA standards. Because the changes, upgrades, and fine tuning to NFPA (1901) standards have been truly significant, especially in the area of safety, fire departments should seriously consider the value (or risk) to firefighters of keeping fire apparatus more than 15 years old in first line service”.
“Under NFPA 1901 standards it is recommended that apparatus more than 15 years old that have been properly maintained and are still in good condition be placed in reserve status, and be upgraded in accordance to NFPA 1912 standards,” said Chief Parker.
“Apparatus that were not manufactured to the applicable NFPA fire apparatus standards or that are over 25 years old should be replaced according to NFPA 1901 standards,” Parker said.
As for the 2023-24 operating budget, Chief Parker has made the following requests for increases:
•$10,000 increase for vehicle parts and repairs. A jump from $5,000 to $15,000 (due to anticipated repairs of aging vehicles and to replace tires on Engine 2)
•$12,000 for extra fire hose & equipment to better serve areas of the city that either do not have sufficient hydrant coverage or where the hydrants are too far apart.
•$10,000 for fire hall building paint and repair
•$2,500 for finishing the outfitting of the 2022 F-150 pickup
•$10,000 to add a hydrant on the fire department training ground site
The mayor and aldermen have not yet acted on Chief Parker’s request.