Three of the town’s five volunteer fire companies — Dodgingtown, Botsford, and Sandy Hook — have taken delivery of new fire tankers to replace some aging tankers in their organizations.

The three trucks, which contain large internal water tanks for firefighting, are owned by the town and designated for use by the three companies. Each of the five local fire companies, including Hook & Ladder and Hawleyville, uses a combination of company-owned and town-owned trucks.

Each of the three fire tankers is painted in the respective colors of its fire company, white for Dodgingtown, bright green for Botsford, and red for Sandy Hook.

Dodgingtown Fire Chief Steve Murphy said the new Dodgingtown tanker carries 2,500 gallons of water. The truck was fabricated by 4 Guys Fire Trucks of Meyersdale, Penn.

The new vehicle known as Tanker 229 cost $477,406. It replaces a tanker truck that has been in service in Dodgingtown since 1991. The new truck has a 1,000-gallon-per-minute pump, far exceeding the previous truck’s pumping capacity.

The vehicle will travel to fire calls, including structure fires, vehicle fires, and brush fires, Chief Murphy said.

Also, Botsford received Truck 559 with a 3,000-gallon tank at a cost of $480,906, according to Town Fleet Foreman Tim Whelan. Sandy Hook received Tanker 9 with the same tank size and same price as the Botsford vehicle.

The Dodgingtown tanker is smaller than the other two tankers because the garage bay where the vehicle is kept at the Dodgingtown Firehouse has less space than the garages for the other trucks.

The total town price of the three-truck purchase was $1,398,461, when factoring in a $41,057 discount provided for chassis pre-payments and a multi-truck discount.

Mr Whelan said the town expects the trucks will have a 30-year service life.