The Pembroke Fire Department is getting a new fire truck.
At the latest city council meeting on Tuesday, December 18th, council voted in favor of purchasing a new pumper – also called a fire rescue truck – for the department.
The new truck will replace an existing 2006 Spartan vehicle that has reached the end of its service life.
The new truck is set to be purchased from Commercial Emergency Equipment, Canada’s largest dealer of emergency apparatus, for roughly $1.4 million.
During the meeting, Fire Chief Scott Selle was asked whether the department had considered buying a used fire apparatus from another community instead of a brand new one.
Selle explained that a used purchase hadn’t been in the cards up to this point for longevity reasons.
Selle explained that most used trucks that are available would be so old that they’d end up in the city’s reserves, rather than the active-duty fleet, almost immediately.
The money for the purchase will come from the Fire Equipment and General Capital reserves.
After some deliberation, council ultimately voted unanimously in favor of the purchase.
(Written by Steve Berard)