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New ladder truck to bolster coverage
Article Launched:11/08/2006 01:57:30 PM EST
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New Oxford Community Fire Co.'s... (
The northeastern section of Adams County is going to be safer on Jan. 1 when New Oxford Fire Co.'s new aerial ladder truck goes into service. The average response time for a similar truck in the area is currently 12 to 20 minutes, said New Oxford Fire Chief Steve Rabine. "If something goes wrong (during a fire), it usually happens in the first five to 10 minutes," he said. "Our closest ladder trucks are in McSherrystown, Hanover and Gettysburg." At the fire at Pennwood Products in East Berlin in October, the first ladder truck on the scene was from Southeastern Adams Volunteer Emergency Services in McSherrystown, which is more than 20 minutes away, Rabine said. The response time from New Oxford would have been less than half of that. The new ladder truck is a 2006 Pierce Dash made in Appleton, Wis. It carries an aerial ladder, ground ladders, a water pump, a 500 gallon water tank and a water hose. The truck won't go into service until 2007 because the company is still "working out the bugs," Rabine said. The firefighters in the company have already gone through a 24-hour manufacturer's class and a 16-hour aerial operation class from Harrisburg Area Community College. The new truck will replace a 19-year-old ladder truck that Rabine said they are selling. Rabine said the truck, which is known as "13-2," was not an aerial ladder truck, and its ladder didn't extend nearly as far as the new truck's does. The purchase of the ladder truck comes in the face of increasing population in the area in and around New Oxford, Rabine said. More than 2,500 homes are expected to be built in the next five to 10 years alone. "Our area is blowing up," he said. The ladder truck will also help the firefighters themselves, Rabine said. Currently, New Oxford Fire Co. has to use ground ladders to get to the roof of any building, and if necessary they have to stand on the roof itself, which can be very dangerous. The aerial ladder is attached to the fire truck and can extend 105 feet. "Right now, we have to use ladders like you get from Lowe's," Rabine said. "If the roof collapses, the ladder won't follow it down." Rabine said there's a simple reason for getting a ladder so long. "Will we ever need to put the ladder straight up? Probably not," he said. "We need it for the reach." Most of the areas the fire company responds to has houses set back 20 to 30 feet from the road, and to get the firefighters close enough to a second-floor fire takes about 75 feet of ladder, Rabine said. It took the fire company 2 1/2 years of planning to get to this point, and the ladder truck cost $700,000. A basic fire truck costs $450,000, and Rabine said the company decided to spend a little more to get a lot more. "We're trying to be progressive," he said. The fire company has a $350,000 budget annually, and they figure the ladder truck will last 25 to 30 years so it's a $30,000 per year investment, said Jeff Blystone, the fire company's treasurer. But the cost is worth it, Rabine said, because you can't put a price on safety. "This purchase is going to save the homeowners in the long run," Rabine said. Contact Sean Hilliard at
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