(Photo provided by Doug Barfoot.)
The Owen Sound Fire Department has received a new 100-foot mid-mount aerial platform truck.
Costing the City around $2 million, Fire Chief Doug Barfoot says this new truck arrived at the station on April 23rd with the old truck having been sold for around $30,000 to the Huron East Fire Department.
Barfoot says this truck is a little different than the one the fire department had before, “it can get into tighter spaces, and that was our main priority.”
According to Barfoot, the truck’s capabilities also feature a platform, which has a different method for entering as well as an extra fly-in ladder, that extends for direct access to a building, which can get closer to the ground.
The truck also has a tighter turning radius.
The company which manufactured the previous aerial fire truck being used by the fire department went out of business in the late 1990s, a City of Owen Sound staff report notes, making it not possible for it to be refurbished.
During the 2018 and 2019 budget process, it was decided $1.8 million should be included in the 2020 budget for the purchase of the fire truck, with $550,000 coming from the Fire Equipment Reserve.