Cookeville FD Requesting New Ladder Truck Due To Estimate 41-Month Lead Time

Cookeville Fire Department seeking an additional ladder truck in the coming fiscal year budget.

Chief Benton Young said they have a 2008 75-foot ladder truck that they would like to replace. He said various vendors estimate it could take up to four years to get the truck in their possession.

“They gave us an estimate on this aerial platform vehicle as 41 months to delivery,” Young said. “So we’re just trying to be proactive, realizing that it will be three and a half years before we get this aerial in.”

Young said right now, price estimates for this truck sit at some $2.2 million. He said this truck will be a 100-foot platform aerial, which has both a  ladder and platform.

Young said the platform makes rescues a lot easier because firefighters can actually stand up instead of trying to operate off of a ladder. He said it also has firefighting capabilities so they can put out fires on roofs or get hoses through windows more easily.

“What we’re proceeding to is called a quint concept, which is a combination of an engine and an aerial,” Young said. “A fire engine is like a toolbox, the more tools you have the more work you can do. So a  quint is a combination and it can pump water, do rescues, do elevated streams on fire, and do different things. What we’re trying to do is get one of those at every station.”

Young said they currently have three quints.