Two of the fire trucks in the fleet of the DeKalb County Volunteer Fire Department, at the Johnson’s Chapel and Keltonberg Stations, recently failed to pass inspection.
County Fire Chief Donny Green says one of the trucks has undergone a patchwork repair but the other one remains out of service.
Green came before the county commission Monday night asking for an emergency expenditure to obtain a 2009 demonstration truck from Oklahoma City under a lease-purchase arrangement and to take bids on the purchase of another 2009 model fire truck. “One of them was a 1974 Ford, the Keltonberg unit, and then there was a 1975 Seagraves which is the Johnson’s Chapel unit that both failed inspections due to some major mechanical problems, specifically brakes and steering.”
“One of them, the Ford, we were able to find some parts to get it back in service. It hasn’t been re-inspected but we have got it back in service and it’s over at Johnson’s Chapel at this time. The other truck is a custom truck built by Seagraves in 1975 and we cannot get parts for it. We’ve looked everywhere and it’s basically going to remain out of service because we can’t get parts for it.”
“One of the problems we’ve run into in looking for used fire trucks is that in the past, we’ve relied on some larger cities where they replaced their trucks on a ten year cycle. Well, with the economy like it’s been, the only thing out on the used market right now is 20 plus year old trucks that are in bad shape. We’ve found a 2009 demo unit that’s in Oklahoma City right now. But regardless, we’ve got our Keltonberg station right now that doesn’t have a truck in it.We’re asking for authorization to do an emergency purchase to get a truck.”
“One of the issues is the urgency of this too. Starting in 2010, there’s an emissions change that’s affecting everything from dump trucks to any of the commercial trucks and it’s going to result in about a $9,000 price increase from the 2009 to 2010 models. And that’s just on the chassis. The apparatus dealers we’ve talked to so far say this will result in about a $20,000 increase on the total fire apparatus.”
The county commission approved Green’s request
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