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The Carthage Fire Department could have in its inventory a rebuilt fire tanker and the first, all new fire engine added to the fleet in decades by the end of the summer.
The Carthage City Council’s Public Safety Committee recommended that the full council accept a bid from Fire Master Fire Apparatus, Springfield, to repair the former Engine 612 and convert it into a dedicated tanker at a cost of $87,239.95.
Fire Master’s bid was one of four bids and was almost $15,000 less than the next lowest bid of $102,199.90 from Deep South Fire Trucks Inc., Seminary Miss.
Fire Master’s bid includes repairing the truck and installing a new 1,500-gallon tank, several sections of new hose, new nozzles and other new equipment.
CFD Chief Chris Thompson said the contract would call for delivery in 90-120 days.
The committee also recommended accepting a $100,000 grant from the Steadley Trust to pay for this project.
City Administrator Tom Short said the city would talk to the trust about using the more than $12,000 left over after the tanker is repaired to pay part of the cost of the fire department’s next new acquisition, a new fire engine.
The city has budgeted $400,000 for a new fire engine.
Thompson said the he’s finishing the specifications for the new truck which will be nearly 100 pages long when completed.
Thompson said fire trucks are custom built in most cases and a department has to provide detailed specifications as to exactly what it needs on the truck.
“Last week went and looked at a truck in Ozark, basically a meat and potatoes truck, not overloaded with electronics,” Thompson said. “It fits what we need the best. With this being an addition to our fleet, we don’t have equipment here so our bid does include what it would take for the truck to show up here today, tonight we drive it out on a fire.”
Thompson said the bid includes a number of new pieces of equipment as alternatives, including a new thermal imaging camera to replace the 10-year-old model the department has now, new safety equipment and rescue tools that can cut through newer car bodies, equipped with boron-reinforced steel posts and frames.
“We put in there a full new set of rescue tools, that’s probably the most expensive part of the alternative bid and it’s probably something I’d fight very hard to keep in the bid,” Thompson said. “The newer cars have boron going from the A-post to the corner of the windshield all the way through the roof on the car and our tools are not capable of cutting it.
The Carthage Fire Department could have in its inventory a rebuilt fire tanker and the first, all new fire engine added to the fleet in decades by the end of the summer.
The Carthage City Council’s Public Safety Committee recommended that the full council accept a bid from Fire Master Fire Apparatus, Springfield, to repair the former Engine 612 and convert it into a dedicated tanker at a cost of $87,239.95.
Fire Master’s bid was one of four bids and was almost $15,000 less than the next lowest bid of $102,199.90 from Deep South Fire Trucks Inc., Seminary Miss.
Fire Master’s bid includes repairing the truck and installing a new 1,500-gallon tank, several sections of new hose, new nozzles and other new equipment.
CFD Chief Chris Thompson said the contract would call for delivery in 90-120 days.
The committee also recommended accepting a $100,000 grant from the Steadley Trust to pay for this project.
City Administrator Tom Short said the city would talk to the trust about using the more than $12,000 left over after the tanker is repaired to pay part of the cost of the fire department’s next new acquisition, a new fire engine.
The city has budgeted $400,000 for a new fire engine.
Thompson said the he’s finishing the specifications for the new truck which will be nearly 100 pages long when completed.
Thompson said fire trucks are custom built in most cases and a department has to provide detailed specifications as to exactly what it needs on the truck.
“Last week went and looked at a truck in Ozark, basically a meat and potatoes truck, not overloaded with electronics,” Thompson said. “It fits what we need the best. With this being an addition to our fleet, we don’t have equipment here so our bid does include what it would take for the truck to show up here today, tonight we drive it out on a fire.”
Thompson said the bid includes a number of new pieces of equipment as alternatives, including a new thermal imaging camera to replace the 10-year-old model the department has now, new safety equipment and rescue tools that can cut through newer car bodies, equipped with boron-reinforced steel posts and frames.
“We put in there a full new set of rescue tools, that’s probably the most expensive part of the alternative bid and it’s probably something I’d fight very hard to keep in the bid,” Thompson said. “The newer cars have boron going from the A-post to the corner of the windshield all the way through the roof on the car and our tools are not capable of cutting it.
“It’s one of those things where, when we show up on the scene, we can’t cut the cars. One of the newer cars I own has boron in it and you can’t cut it. You can’t cut it with a saws all, you can’t cut it with the Jaws of Life, it takes a boron tip tool classified to cut boron and unfortunately they’re expensive. You’re looking at probably $30,000 for a new set of rescue tools, but again, if we want to set a truck up the way it should be set up to do the job it’s something we need to look at.”
