OAKLAND — A new generation of fire engine, specially designed to navigate tight city streets, made its public debut Monday on the 17th anniversary of the Oakland hills fire.
The new rigs are about two feet shorter in length than older models, ride higher off the ground to achieve better clearance and are slightly shorter in height. The turning radius is also much improved, officials said.
Oakland Fire Department Deputy Chief James Williams
“These rigs are specially designed to navigate the neighborhoods of the Oakland hills,” said fire Chief Daniel Farrell, after calling for a minute of silence to honor the fire battalion chief, police officer and 23 civilians who died 17 years ago in California’s worst fire on record.
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- Oakland Fire Department Deputy Chief James Williams
The new design, concocted by a team of Oakland Fire Department firefighters and engineers and custom-built for the department by a Wisconsin manufacturer, runs a little over $400,000 per vehicle, Farrell said. The department ordered six, of which three arrived about two weeks ago. The rest are expected in February or March of next year.
“These vehicles are very expensive, but we anticipated needing to buy them and set the money aside,” Farrell said, crediting department Chief Financial Officer Donna Hom with making the new vehicles an affordable part of the department’s budget.
“Over the past five or six years we’ve come in under budget consistently, and returned to the city over $10 million. We’re aggressive about going after grants and other ways of bringing money to the department, and we watch each and every dime we spend,” Farrell said.
The department’s 25 fire stations house 36 fire engines, not including ladder trucks and other vehicles, Farrell said. The new engines will rejuvenate the fleet as three older engines, some dating back to 1992, are retired from service.
“We don’t like to keep engines in our department past 10 or 12 years, at the most,” Farrell said. “This department answers 60,000 calls a year, and we put a lot of mileage on them.”
The new rigs are expected to begin answering fire calls in mid-November, after local firefighters have had the chance to thoroughly test each truck and install radios and computer systems, Captain James Ready said.
WestCoast911 News tip Submitted by member MethodMan – Story and Photos by The Oakland Tribune
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