ST. GEORGE — With the fire season underway and a need for a new and reliable fire apparatus to serve the communities up state Route 18, the Washington County Commission recently approved the purchase of a new fire engine for Dammeron Valley Fire and Rescue.
The purchase approval came in early June, and the lease to Dammeron Valley Fire and Rescue took effect Tuesday. The engine is slated to arrive later this month.
According to a press release from Dammeron Valley Fire, the agency’s current engine, a Becker Type 1 pumper – built in 1993 and acquired by the fire district in 2003 – has begun to show its age.
“With the demands of increased call volumes and training hours, the current apparatus has been plagued with critical maintenance issues and has exceeded (its) useful life for an active fire and rescue department responding to both structure and wildland fires, as well as medical and traffic incident calls,” Dammeron Valley Fire Chief John Hennessy said in the news release.
Washington County Commission Victor Iverson previously said the Becker fire engine was “held together by hope” and needed to be replaced due to its constant maintenance and upkeep issues.
The average service life of a fire engine is considered to be around 20 years.
The new engine – which was purchased for $562,000 with up to $100,000 approved for related equipment – is being built by HMC Inc. and tentatively is set to arrive at Dammeron Valley by mid-July.
Manufactured in Michigan, the engine is considered ideally suited to the Wildland Urban Interface along the SR-18 corridor, the press release states. It is 6 feet shorter than the Fire Department’s current engine and has a shorter wheelbase that will make the new engine more adaptable to the steep and narrow roads in areas of the area, such as Pinion Hills.
“The is for the purpose of not only fighting fires efficiently but having (an engine) they can rely upon to extend their service,” Commissioner Gil Almquist said in Tuesday’s commission meeting.
Dammeron Valley was chosen to receive the new fire engine because it is considered the best location to serve not only the immediate area, but the communities along SR-18 as a whole, Commissioner Adam Snow said.
“They are interested in putting out fires,” Almquist added. “They do not care about boundaries. History has shown they do care about what’s happening all around them.”
When a fire happens anywhere on SR-18, it is not uncommon for Dammeron Valley Fire and other fire agencies located on the corridor to respond to the scene due to mutual aid agreements.
Having the new engine also will be a benefit with the increased number of certified wildland and structural firefighters who have joined Dammeron Valley Fire and Rescue, Hennessy said.
“(The Fire Department) is responding to more calls than ever along the SR-18 corridor and beyond and thus far this year our call volume is 40% above last year,” Hennessey said in early June. “This new engine provides our members with a best-in-class apparatus that is reliable and adaptable to the ever-changing conditions in DVFR’s service area. … As rural communities in Southern Utah continue to grow at a record rate, it’s critical that emergency services keep pace.
This new apparatus ensures the Fire Department’s certified members have the tools they need to continue to respond to a record number of incidents safely and effectively, he added.
It generally takes up to a year for a fire agency to receive a new fire engine as the majority are customer jobs built from the ground up.
However, while attending a convention related to firefighting, county fire officials came across a company that would deliver an engine much faster, Almquist said. This is because the company already had the chassis, or frame, of fire engines built for fast orders, he said.
Washington City went through a similar process last year to obtain a new fire engine to replace one of its aging engines.
“The process (of getting the engine) was sped up with fire season looming,” Almquist said. “We can’t leave the residents up SR-18 without proper fire protection.”
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