News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
McMinnville working to bring new firetrucks to its fleet.
Safety Committee Chair Zach Sutton said National Firefighters Association standards currently require three frontline firetrucks, which are less than 15 years old. He said the city only has one frontline fire truck, with a goal of buying two engines.
“These are pieces of equipment that are run very hard and every time it’s driven, the engine needs to be able to get them to the emergency,” Sutton said. “As well be able to run lines for water, protect property and the fighters as well as citizens.”
Sutton said the big push for the engines is two-fold, including long lead times for vehicles as well as expected cost increases.
Sutton said right now, they plan on purchasing one engine using a portion of its $4 million of ARP funding. He said they also are looking to purchase a rescue truck using that funding to address emergency situations like traffic accidents.
“Which we have quite a few of in our area and we need to be able to have all the equipment on one truck,” Sutton said. “There was a Friday a few months ago we had four accidents in two hours on a Friday afternoon after school in bad conditions. We need multiple trucks that have motor vehicle extrication capacity.”
As for the other fire engine, Sutton said they plan to look at grants. He said they are applying for a $330,000 FEMA grant, as well as UCDD block grants.
