The Jonesville City Council approved spending $238,000 Wednesday night to purchase a 2021 Fouts 4 Initial Attack Fire Apparatus.
The “mini-pumper” sits on a F550 chassis and is considerably smaller than any other fire engine in service throughout Hillsdale County, but it has a 1500 gallon-per-minute pump on board which is comparable to most larger trucks.
Essentially, the Fouts 4 can provide every capability a larger truck provides, officials said, but it only has a 285 gallon water tank on board.
Public Safety Director Kurt Etter said the new truck will primarily be used as a first response unit for all motor vehicle crashes and be equipped with the jaws-of-life rescue tools. The truck will also be utilized for medical assists and mutual aid calls.
Etter added that the truck’s size provides a unique response vehicle as it can get into areas where larger trucks cannot and that it could be used in strategic locations—such as in the back of a structure—relying on a pump relay from a heavier apparatus.
City Manager Jeff Gray said that Etter’s proposal was driven by data and that his approach has been holistic and collaborative as the department assessed its equipment and future needs.
“It is my wish to put the best possible equipment out there to do the best job we can,” said City Councilman Andy Penrose. “To me, this is a no brainer.”
The Fouts 4 will replace the city’s aging 2,000 gallon tanker, which Etter will look at selling or scrapping in the future.
The $238,000 appropriated Wednesday night will come from the fire department’s equipment fund, which had $241,000 in reserve as of Wednesday. Gray said that between the city and contracting townships, $27,000 was put into the reserve account annually.
Etter added that since the truck they are purchasing is a demo-model, they could potentially have possession of it in as little as two or three weeks.
Public Safety Director Kurt Etter, Assistant Fire Chief Rick Riggs and Councilman Andy Penrose review capabilities of the Fouts 4 Initial Attack Fire Apparatus.
This article originally appeared on Hillsdale Daily News: Jonesville City Council approves purchasing new fire truck
Source: https://news.yahoo.com/jonesville-council-approves-purchase-fire-145752213.html
