Firefighters get new rescue vehicle
West St. Paul Fire Department members will be driving their new truck in the spring
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This article was published 08/01/2018 (2891 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
West St. Paul firefighters will soon be driving a custom-built rescue vehicle after a three-year quest for a new vehicle.
Due to the limited space in the department’s current 1994-model truck, the West St. Paul Fire Department was limited in the services it could offer.
Fire Chief Ryan Yackel said the new vehicle transports two members in the cab and six additional passengers. The truck improves the department’s capabilities significantly because it can carry more specialized equipment, such as devices used in vehicle extrication, as well as low angle or confined space rescue. The truck is an entirely custom-made vehicle that meets the RM’s specific needs.
“As the department expands and grows, and the community expands and grows, the calls for service and the types of calls we get are becoming more and more specialized,” Yackel said. “This new truck will give us the ability to carry more specialized rescue equipment and provide more services and more capabilities in the future.”
Three years ago, committee leaders met with several manufacturers and suppliers to come up with a design, which was approved by council in the 2016 budget. The bid was awarded to Acres Emergency Vehicles located in Wawanesa, Man. last spring, and they will be delivering the new truck in approximately two months.
With the completion of the new fire hall in June 2014, the department which is constituted of 35 members, has the space to house the proper apparatus and is not limited by footprint on the type of equipment they can purchase in the future. They can make purchases according to the community and department’s needs because they have the facility to store them properly.
In addition to that, recent improvements in municipal water services help firefighters in assisting residents.
“We will now have more places to access fire hydrants for water for servicing the department and showering water to locations in the RM,” Yackel said. “It will give us the ability to refill and attend quicker.”