Fire department receptive to ladder truck demonstration

The Barrhead Fire Department is hoping it will soon have a new piece of equipment.

On Wednesday, Sept. 9, Pierce Manufacturing sales staff visited the Barrhead Fire Hall in hopes of convincing the fire department, the Fire Services Committee and town and county council to buy one of their most recent products, an aerial truck, better known as a ladder fire engine.

John Whittaker, Barrhead fire chief, said Pierce staff were preaching to the choir.

“We would love to have this aerial truck or something very similar to this,” he said, adding the fire department is in desperate need of a ladder truck.

The fire department has been looking into equipment that would be a suitable replacement for their old aerial truck after the decision was made to decommission it over two years ago.

“The truck was 37 years-old and really the effective life span for a piece of equipment like this is 25 years,” Whittaker said. “It became a liability. It was a piece of equipment that could potentially hurt, not only the department and our members, but the public. By having it here it was giving people a false sense of security that it could perform a job that it could no longer do.”

Although the fire department no longer has an aerial truck that doesn’t mean the fire department believes one is no longer needed.

“Right now I don’t have a ladder that will reach the top many of the taller buildings in the town and county of Barrhead,” he said. “We have a number of buildings that are three to four stories, like Klondike place, the elevators and a number of apartment buildings in town.”

Whittaker said an aerial truck would not only allow the fire department to extinguish fires more quickly and efficiently, but it could potentially save lives.

“If I can rescue somebody and put out the fire without actually entering the building, think of all the lives, not only of rescuers, but the people we pull from the structures and how much safer it will be for them,” he said. “Giving these fine folks (pointing to the firefighters) the proper tools to do the job is paramount in order to run a top notch organization, like the Barrhead Fire Department.”

However, having such piece of equipment, such as an aerial truck, comes at a price. The aerial truck Pierce Manufacturing demonstrated, depending on the options selected, is priced at about $900,000.

Whittaker said he hopes the two councils will approve the purchase of an aerial truck in the near furture, adding that he realizes it is a major expenditure.

According to the fire services agreement both the town and county share the capital costs of fire services equally.

“I know when everyone hears a number like $900,000 their first reaction is that it’s a ridiculous amount of money, but remember this is a piece of equipment that we are going to keep for 20 to 25 years,” he said, adding that roughly works out to be $33,000 a year. “There is not a lot of equipment that does what this truck can do. It’s a lifesaving piece of equipment.”

“It’s really an impressive, innovative piece of equipment. It is a single axle truck, which means it is shorter and can more easily maneuver on Barrhead streets and the ladder has a reach of more than a hundred feet,” he said. “Having something like this would allow us to reach the top of the of buildings and even to reach the middle of wide buildings like the Neerlandia Co-op, so we could spray water and foam to battle fires safely from the outside.”