Date: Fri 30-Jan-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Hook-Ladder-aerial-truck

Full Text:

Aerial Ladder Truck Back In Service

(with cut)

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Truck 14, Newtown Hook and Ladder Volunteer Fire Company's aerial ladder

truck, is back in service.

Away since last September, the big bright red truck with the telescoping

100-foot-long ladder is again garaged at Hook and Ladder's firehouse at 45

Main Street, behind Edmond Town Hall.

And it's none too soon, according to Hook and Ladder firefighters.

While the fire truck was away being fixed in Elmira, N.Y., Hook and Ladder had

the use of a loaned green aerial truck from the fire truck dealership where

Truck 14 was repaired.

Due to wear-and-tear damage to a ladder section of the 1976 Seagrave truck, it

had to be repaired for safety reasons, according to Chief Dave Ober. The town

bought the truck new 22 years ago.

As the truck traveled on fire calls, the ladder section had bounced up and

down on sets of rollers, causing denting that posed potential safety hazards.

Repairmen replaced the rollers with "wear blocks" to fix the problem.

Repairing the wear on the ladder section, plus other safety repairs, cost the

town about $36,000.

Fire engines are rigorously inspected to check for any damage that may pose

safety hazards. When the damage was found on Truck 14, it had to be fixed.

The improvements made to the truck should extend its operating life by about

another three years, Chief Ober said.

Replacing the truck with a new truck would cost about $600,000, he said. The

high cost of fire trucks stems from the stringent safety standards to which

they are built, he said.

Besides its prime feature -- a hydraulically-powered, truck-mounted

telescoping ladder -- Truck 14 carries a variety of tools which firefighters

use when battling structure fires, such as fire hooks, salvage lights,

electric saws, smoke ejectors, electrical lines, a heat sensor, air packs and

fire extinguishers.

The aerial ladder truck is dispatched to the initial report of structure fires

and to automatic alarms coming from certain buildings and schools. It also is

dispatched to chimney fires. At times, the truck is dispatched on mutual aid

calls to Southbury and Monroe.

In 1997, Newtown Hook and Ladder responded to 475 calls for help.