Mount Olive gets new fire truck
By Steve Herring
Published in News on July 18, 2016 1:46 PM
MOUNT OLIVE -- A new $416,000 crash/utility truck for the town's fire department has been put into service.
The fire department is using a $215,000 loan from the USDA and $200,000 in department savings to buy the truck.
The reason to replace the older truck is simply that it was full and somewhat limited in use, Fire Chief Greg Wiggins said.
"There was nothing else that we could put on it (old truck)," he said. "All it would do is extrication (freeing people from wrecked vehicles) and rescue-type stuff. With the new rescue truck we are going to be able to put some saws, some ladders on there. It will be more useable on a fire scene."
Along with being used for extrication, it can also be used when the need arises for forcible entry, he said.
It can also carry 24 additional spare air bottles.
The new truck has a remote-controlled light tower while the old unit has lights on telescoping poles that had to be manually adjusted.
The truck has a refrigerator to cool water down for firefighters, an automatic awning to provide shade and a cool-mist fan to blow water over firefighters in the summer.
It is similar to what can be seen on the sidelines at sporting events blowing a cool water mist over the players, he said.
The truck can also seat four people as opposed to the two that could fit in the old truck.
"You could squeeze three in it (old truck), but it was really designed for two people," Wiggins said. "With that (older) truck we are having to send it and a chase vehicle. Whereas this truck, if it is gong mutual aid, you can send that truck with a crew on it, and you are basically done versus sending that (older) truck and a couple of chase vehicles."