Fletcher Ohio Adds Toyne Engine to Fleet
12.15.14
Article reprinted with permission of author, Mike Ullery, of the Piqua Daily Call
Fletcher, Ohio - Christmas arrived early for members of the Fletcher Fire Department and citizens under the protective umbrella of Fletcher's department.
A new engine, designated Engine 3, rolled up to the firehouse on State Route 589 late Friday afternoon. At the wheel was Casstown fire captain Dave Fornell, who drove the engine from its final fitting-out location in Iowa.
The truck is a Toyne truck, built on a Spartan chassis. The truck features the latest available technology. It has a 1,000-gallon tank with a 1,500-gallon-per-minute pump.
The mid-ship control deck allows the pump operator to work either, or both, sides of the truck. Cameras facing fore and aft give both the pump operator and driver the ability to see in front of and behind the truck.
Chief Ken DeWeese said, "We've also got a hydraulic-powered generator with scene lighting. It has a 25-gallon foam tank that we can inject foam directly into our hose lines."
Firefighters are beginning to train on the new engine in hopes of having it ready to put into operation by the end of the year.
"This has been a long time in the making. We tried to apply for several grants to get at least most of it paid for," said DeWeese about the cost of the new engine. "Unfortunately, we were not one of the lucky ones. So, we looked into financing it and found that we would be able to afford to do it."
Once the feasibility was determined, DeWeese said, "We put the process in for creating all the specs for it, looking at different brands and picking the one that we felt worked the best for us."
The price tag for Engine 3 came in at over $300,000, and should give the Fletcher Fire Department "an engine that will suit our needs and will give us the new technology that we will need for the next 20-30 years. This engine should last at least that long for us," said DeWeese.
DeWeese said that much of the work on putting specs together for the engine and designing the body layout was done by Fletcher Assistant Chief Kris Black, whose full-time job is as firefighter on the Piqua Fire Department.
A grant from the Miami County Foundation in the amount of $5,000 was received to help in fitting out Engine 3.
DeWeese, who has announced his pending retirement from the department, effective in mid-January of 2015, hopes to get at least one fire run in the new engine before he leaves the department.
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Image provided by Mike Ullery of the Piqua Daily Call