Aaron Curtis
The Sun, Lowell, Mass.
(TNS)
DRACUT — In a nod to tradition, the Dracut Fire Department celebrated the arrival of two new fire trucks recently purchased by the town with a “push-in” ceremony on Wednesday.
According to the Dracut Fire Department, the ceremony is a tradition that dates back to the era of horse-drawn fire carriages, which were detached from the horses and manually pushed back into the fire stations, as horses cannot walk backward.
As part of the ceremony, Fire Department Chaplain Rev. Larry Zimmerman led firefighters in a prayer to bless the two new trucks.
Both trucks are Ford F-550 all-wheel-drive vehicles, each carrying 330 gallons of water, 30 gallons of Class A foam, and capable of pumping 1,250 gallons of water per minute. Designed as multi-purpose vehicles, they can respond to the myriad emergencies Dracut firefighters face daily.
Each truck cost about $400,000, and were purchased as part of the town’s capital expenditure plan.
Fire Chief Richard Patterson stated that the primary mission of the trucks is to respond to medical emergencies. However, both vehicles are also equipped to fight building fires, brush fires, and to tow the department’s marine units to water incidents.
“These trucks do not replace traditional, full-sized pumper trucks, but they will greatly reduce wear and tear on our pumper trucks, which cost about a million dollars each,” Patterson said in a press release. “We expect the Squad 1 and Squad 3 trucks to help us extend the life expectancy of our pumper trucks by about five years.”
Patterson thanked the town for purchasing the two new trucks, which he said will increase the department’s abilities to efficiently respond to calls.
“Responding to medical calls is a major part of what we do, and these two new trucks will enable us to respond to those calls without tying up our pumper trucks and larger equipment,” Patterson said.
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