The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Custom ride
Norristown Fire Department is getting a new fire truck Municipality’s Capital Improvement Plan covers the price tag
NORRISTOWN » It will be like Christmas in August when Norristown firefighters receive a shiny new fire truck worth more than $800,000, complete with all updated equipment.
The custom-made, high performance truck was purchased with the approval of Norristown Municipal Council as part of the Municipality’s Capital Improvement Plan, noted Fire Chief Tom O’Donnell.
“It’s being built as we speak,” O’Donnell said. “All fire trucks, for the most part, are custom built. The reason being is that it’s not like every (stock unit) fire truck will fit the needs of the community. So our fire truck is being built for our community, meaning it will be able to maneuver some tight streets and is set up to be conducive to some of our tight neighborhoods. It’s a functioning fire apparatus that will serve the community for the next 15 or 20 years.”
The new Quint will replace a 2001 American LaFrance Quint, which has racked up more than 90,000 firefighting miles in its time, O’Donnell noted.
“The American LaFrance has really outlived its usefulness to the community. Trucks are just like us, the older we get the more times we have to go see the doctor; the older a fire truck gets, the more
times it has to go see the mechanic,” O’Donnell pointed out. “The manufacturer is now out of business. When the truck breaks down it’s very hard to find parts for it.”
After a company called Emergency One, or E-One, located in Ocala, Fla. became the winning — and lowest — bidder, production started on the new HP 78 Quint at the beginning of June.
Anchored by a Typhoon Chassis, the truck will sport a Hale 1500 GPM Pump, 78foot aluminum aerial ladder and carry 500 gallons of water. The total cost of the project is $837,214, O’Donnell said.
“The truck essentially has two functions built into one truck,” he explained. “A lot of times vendors want to come in and just sell you a fire truck. What we wanted was a truck that would be built to suit the needs of our neighborhoods and we told the manufacturers what we wanted the truck to do and (designed) a high performance vehicle.”
The Quint will be the third vehicle that the Norristown Fire Department has purchased from Emergency One, which was founded in 1974.
“We have a ladder truck and heavy rescue truck that are also from the company and we’re very happy with what they’ve done for us,” said O’Donnell, who expects the new truck to be delivered sometime in August.
He said the department declined the extended warranty that was available on the truck’s standard one-year warranty.
“It’s when these trucks get older, around their fifth year, that they start having issues. The cost of an extended warranty for the truck was an exorbitant amount of money and we didn’t want to waste the taxpayers money on an extended warranty,” O’Donnell noted.
The department’s fleet is serviced by a third party mechanic, he added.
Emergency One has been updating its clients on the construction progress of the HP 78 Quint with photos, and the firefighters are happy to share the photos with everyone, O’Donnell said.
“We encourage our residents to follow the progress of this truck through the entire construction on our Facebook page, www. facebook.com/NorristownFireDepartment,” he added. “And when the truck is delivered we will invite residents to an open house so they can come in and actually see what the public’s money was used to purchase.”