EASTON, Maine — A brand new fire truck was delivered to the Easton Fire Department on Oct. 26 and will serve as a secondary vehicle for fire emergencies.
The truck was assembled in Hamburg, New York, and sent to Brunswick to be fine-tuned for service.
The Easton Fire Department has engines with an age range from 1982 to 2010, with the new combination fire tanker and engine to replace the 1982 fire truck. The new truck cost less than $385,000, with the Fire Department giving the town $350,000 up front and paid the rest when the truck was delivered.
“That truck was intended to take the pressure off the 1994 [truck] and to get rid of the 1982 and to make it so the one that we call “the tanker”, if we want to use it, ok, and if we don’t want to use it this truck can function in that capacity,” Fire Chief Greg White said.
The old tanker holds 5,000 gallons, while the new fire truck holds 3,000 gallons of water but has a water pump, ladder, deck guns, hoses and self-contained breathing apparatus. The new fire truck can draw water from any brook or pond at less than 1,500 gallons per minute, according to White.
“You need to have that capability, whereas in the city they don’t worry about that because their water is always pushed to them. Our water we have to pick up and bring to us and then carry it,” White said.
The combination fire tanker truck can carry up to five fully geared up firefighters with thermal imaging cameras for search and rescue. The new fire truck will play a secondary role by dumping its water load into the 1994 fire truck to save time on going to and from a fire emergency.
In 2020, White applied for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and in April 2020 the town voted to approve up to $385,000 to purchase the fire truck. Six months later, the Easton Fire Department was notified by Sen. Susan Collins’ office that they had received a FEMA grant of $323,000. FEMA has been awarding fire departments the Assistance to Firefighter grant since September 2001.
Another fire truck is set to arrive in six months to replace the 1985 Irving converted fire tanker that sits up the street from the fire station. The FEMA grant money will be used to replace the 1985 fire tanker.
EASTON, Maine — October 27, 2022 — Lieutenant fire fighter Chris Wilcox enjoying a test drive of the new combination fire tanker truck around Easton. (Paul Bagnall | The Star-Herald)
EASTON, Maine — October 27, 2022 — The old converted fire tanker truck that will soon be replaced down the street from the Easton Fire Department. (Paul Bagnall | The Star-Herald)
