CARIBOU — City Council recently authorized the replacement of Caribou Fire Department’s Engine No. 1 truck as well as their rescue vehicle with a single rescue pumper. In his statement to the city, Fire Chief Scott Susi estimated that the $585,000 rescue pumper will save the department money in the long run, as it would cost roughly $525,000 just to replace Engine No. 1.
Susi’s price estimate factors in their plan to trade in their current rescue vehicle, and wrote that the investment would “save the city from the future purchase of a rescue truck and maintenance costs for multiple trucks,” and that using one vehicle for rescue and water would save Caribou money by “only having to send one truck to an accident instead of two,” adding that it would be “more efficient to run just one truck with personnel, not having extra people taking trucks and equipment, and maintenance on one truck instead of two.”
Fire Department personnel realized they would need to replace their vehicles when Certified Emergency Vehicle Technician Kurtis Daigle gave Engine No. 1 a visual inspection on Dec. 6 of last year. According to Chief Susi, Daigle found that the the cab has stress cracks and hairline fractures and that the aluminum beams supporting the cab, as well as surrounding reinforcements, have severe cracks. Susi added that the vehicle was shown to have numerous electrical issues, including “failure of hydraulic system for cab tilt, overheating electrical panel, erratic engine gauges, inaccurate gauges in the cab, and a total melting of the overhead switch panel.”
While Daigle’s inspection was only visual, Susi added that prices for a complete inspection and visual repair are roughly $168,000, and therefore recommended trading in Rescue No. 6 and replacing both vehicles with one, writing that the “safety of our personnel and the citizens is priority, getting the right equipment to an incident for safety or to save a life is priceless.”
The majority of council voted for the two-in-one replacement after lengthy discussion about Engine No. 1’s issues and how to take preventative measures against similar problems in the future.
“My concern is what are we going to do to make sure this doesn’t happen again?” Mayor Gary Aiken said. “I don’t know a whole lot about it, and obviously nobody that works for the city knows a whole lot about it, or we wouldn’t have this problem, so is there something we can do with the new truck to make sure we don’t have this scenario happen again down the road?”
City Manager Austin Bleess suggested making a plan to set aside money in the budget for the EVT to come in and inspect the fleet on a more regular basis. Many agreed with Bleess’ suggestion, with Susi adding that it would be relatively affordable.
