By Craig Fox
Watertown Daily Times
WATERTOWN, N.Y. — It took 858 days for the city’s Fire Department to finally get its brand new fire engine parked in front of the South Massey Street fire station.
The 2024 pumper truck was delivered on Friday after the Fire Department put in an order on April 18, 2022, taking two years, four months and five days to arrive.
On Monday afternoon, a small group of firefighters stopped by to get their first look at the shiny, bright yellow fire engine still parked in front of the fire station before it goes into service, probably on Friday.
Engine 2 will be assigned to Station 2 on State Street, replacing a 28-year-old pumper. Firefighters still need additional training on the new one and some computer software must be installed.
Firefighter Mike Lindsey will be working on the 60,000-pound engine daily.
“It’s definitely a step up from what we had,” Lindsay said.
Manufactured by Rosenbauer America in Minnesota, the pumper was then taken to Empire Fire in Niagara Falls, where it was equipped with a series of features that the old engine did not have and were not required 20 years ago.
Costing $717,000 for the truck itself, the city added nearly $15,000 in additional equipment for a total price tag of $732,431.
“It’s a heavy-duty truck,” Fire Chief Matthew R. Timerman said. “No doubt about it.”
A national supply chain issue and a workforce shortage caused the delay to get it built and delivery to the department.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, it would have taken about a year to get the fire engine, not more than two years, Timerman said.
Just like picking out a car at a dealership, a salesman tried to get the department to go for “pricey options,” but the department only picked out what was needed under its “tight budget,” he said.
The department will continue to use the 1996 Ferrara pumper that the new truck will officially replace. A 2006 Pierce truck is getting taken off the road because its rail frame has corroded and is no longer under warranty.
The new truck has a galvanized frame rail so it won’t end up rusted, Timerman said.
The new truck also is safer and more efficient, with firefighters climbing on it less because equipment “is closer to the ground,” he said.
It’s also equipped with airbags and three-point seat belts.
Using space more efficiently, there are compartments for such things as air cylinders and a speedy dry hopper that releases an absorbent material that helps clean up vehicle crashes.
The truck is outfitted with a wireless headset communication system for firefighters to hear each other in the truck and their colleagues at the fire station.
The truck’s coloring is a bit different, too. It has a black roof and a bright red chevron pattern that dominates its back.
The department has an order in for an “identical twin” engine that will be delivered next December, but it’s going to cost $215,000 more as the result of supply issues, he said.
Timerman looks forward to when a $1.39 million ladder truck is delivered during the first quarter of next year. The new ladder truck — made by KME with a mid-mounted ladder — will replace a 36-year-old E-One aerial truck.
When the new one is delivered, plans call for selling the 1986 E-One truck. In 2022, the department purchased a used ladder truck from the city of Geneva for $40,000.
A new rescue truck also will join the fleet in about 600 days. The department is now looking at vendors for the purchase.
The fire department’s fleet of vehicles were the color red for decades. As the story goes, a national study about 70 years ago determined that yellow trucks were “much more eye-popping,” so Watertown changed them to that color and they have been ever since, Timerman said.
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