The sense of pride was palpable at Seymour Fire Station 3 on Monday like when a father gets to show off his new baby for the first time.
But instead of a little bouncing bundle of joy, Fire Chief Brad Lucas and the Seymour Fire Department received delivery of a big, red, shiny firetruck.
Made by Pierce Manufacturing in Appleton, Wisconsin, the Arrow XT is a 100-foot aerial ladder truck purchased and built to replace the department’s current Ladder 1, which turns 24 years old this year.
“We try to get at least 20 years out of them,” Lucas said. “In a big city like Indianapolis, they only get seven or eight years, 10 at best.”
With a $1.3 million price tag, the new truck is powered by a Cummins X12 500 horsepower engine and boasts a 2,000-gallon-per-minute pump and a 300-gallon water tank, making it the largest capacity truck in Seymour’s fleet. It can seat four firefighters at a time and cuts setup time, giving more time for putting out fires.
“The old one takes a minute and a half to get all set up. Now, it’s 30 seconds,” Lucas said.
Because the truck is a midmount aerial, the base of the ladder and where the operator stands to use it is toward the middle of the truck behind the cab rather than at the rear of the truck like the current Ladder 1.
The design makes the new truck slightly shorter and more compact, at 10 feet, 8 inches tall, allowing it to fit in the Station 1 bay, Lucas said.
“The new rear mounts are 11 feet, 10 inches tall, and the opening in our building is only 11 feet, 10 inches, so we got this to fit in our building,” he said.
The truck will be housed at Station 1 so it’s closer to the downtown and the hospital, he said.
Lucas said even when the new station is built, Ladder 1 will remain at Station 1.
One benefit of having a new truck is the city doesn’t have to keep sinking money into repairing the old one.
“It’s hard to get parts for it,” he said. “What you think should be $500 or $600 to repair is $4,000 because they have to manufacture the part.”
But just because it’s old doesn’t mean somebody else can’t use it, he said.
Lucas said the city will sell the truck through an online auction.
“Any surplus equipment the city wants to get rid of has to be put up for auction,” he said.
Having talked to other fire departments, Lucas said he knows the city of Salem is interested in bidding.
“They don’t have a truck like that,” he said. “Although it’s a fairly obsolete truck, there is still a market for them.”
He expects the truck will bring in no more than $100,000.
Another benefit of the new truck is it allows the city to maintain an ISO rating of 3, which is outstanding, Lucas said. ISO, or Insurance Services Office, rates fire departments and communities on how well-equipped they are to put out fires. The rating is then provided to insurance companies to determine property insurance costs. The lower the rate, the better for property owners.
“We needed this truck to keep our ISO rating good,” Lucas said.
One feature Lucas had added to the truck is a decal of a firefighter’s helmet decorated with a stars and stripes theme and the wording “Honoring America’s bravest 9-11-01, we will not forget you.”
He started planning for the truck five years ago. Every year, the mayor and city council finance committee ask departments for a capital outlay plan.
In 2019, city officials decided it was time to make the purchase. By prepaying for the truck, the city saved $50,000, which could then be used for tools and other needed equipment to put on the truck, Lucas said.
The purchase was one of the final acts made by previous Mayor Craig Luedeman in December 2019 before Mayor Matt Nicholson took office. It was paid for through a bond issued last fall by the Seymour Redevelopment Commission.
“I was glad he was able to get that done for us,” Lucas said.
Nicholson thanked all of those who had a hand in the project.
“Thank you to the committee that put the work in over the last few years to get it to completion,” he said.
Because it typically takes 10 months to build the truck, delivery was expected in October 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed production.
Lucas said he was set to travel to Wisconsin in April 2020 for a preconstruction meeting with Pierce, but he couldn’t go because the plant was closed and travel had been restricted due to spread of the virus.
Delivery was bumped back to December and later to the end of January.
“At the plant, they had as many as 600 people off at a time,” Lucas said.
Four weeks ago, on Jan. 5, Lucas, Battalion Chief Anthony Walker and Firefighter Ryan Sterling were able to visit the plant for a final inspection of the truck, and on Feb. 1, it arrived in Seymour, having been delayed once again by weather.
Before the truck is put into service, Lucas said they still have to put a hose and some other equipment on it.
In a couple of weeks, a Pierce representative will come to Seymour to train firefighters on the truck, and they will spend another week getting comfortable with operating it.
“I would say the last week of February is when it will be in service,” he said.
Lucas and Nicholson aren’t worried about having to purchase another truck like it any time soon as it won’t need replaced until at least 2041.
“It’s a beautiful piece of equipment that should serve our community for decades to come,” Nicholson said.