 Moorhead
wants to replace fire trucks
By Dave Roepke droepke@forumcomm.com,
The Forum
Published May 27, 2005
Twenty-five years isn’t what it used to be for Moorhead
fire trucks.
Citing an increased number of fire calls, city officials are bumping the
replacement schedule for fire engines from every 25 years to 20 years.
They plan to start immediately by replacing half of the city’s four-truck
fleet of fire engines at a combined cost of about $1 million.
A quarter of a century is too long to wait to replace the pumping engines
whose increased use has brought increased breakdowns, said Fire Chief Joel
Hewitt.
For example, one of the two main engines was out of service for a month and a
half because of a problem with its power steering, Hewitt said. “That’s just
totally unacceptable,” he said. It was finally fixed last week after a part
mechanics were waiting for arrived, the chief said.
Assistant Chief Greg Doeden said Moorhead fire fighters went on about 500
runs in 1977, increasing to about 1,000 by 1986 and about 1,500 by 1994. There
were about 2,200 runs last year, he said.
“We’re just putting too many miles and hours on our trucks,” he said.
When the department gets the new trucks sometime next spring, the existing
main engines will become backups.
Backup engines are used in major fires or to respond to a second incident
while the main trucks are busy at another scene, Hewitt said.
“They’ll take less pounding by putting them in the back row,” he said.
The city will then try to sell the existing backup engines, one which was set
for replacement this year and another that wasn’t scheduled to be exchanged
until 2010.
It’s not likely they’ll fetch much, Doeden said.
Most departments that use a 25-year rotation will have trucks with less wear
than Moorhead’s, and departments of similar size typically use a shorter
rotation, he said.
“In the open market, they’re worth very, very little, if anything,” he
said.
Under the new schedule, trucks will spend 10 years as main engines and
another 10 years as backups, Hewitt said.
The change will also affect the city’s lone ladder truck, which was
replaced in 2003.
Moorhead used to replace trucks on a 20-year schedule, but added an extra
five years to save money during a round of budget cuts about 15 years ago,
Doeden said.
At a study session meeting Monday, City Council agreed that stepping up the
swapping of trucks was a good idea.
Councilman Morrie Kelsven, a retired Moorhead fire fighter, said it was a “nobrainer.”
“I think this is something that should have happened a long time ago,”
Kelsven said. The council is slated to consider the new rotation schedule and
the purchase of the new engines at its June 6 meeting. Readers can reach Forum
reporter Dave Roepke at (701) 241-5535
[ Home ] [2005
News]
| 
