Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The Palouse Fire Department has found its new truck.
After a search begun last year to replace the ‘87 Pierce pumper-tanker – to keep the fleet at 30 years old or less – the department has bought a 1997 pumper-tanker from the town of Lawrenceburg, Tenn., with 1,000 gallons greater capacity and a closed, four-man cab.
The price was $88,000.
Bruce Beeson, a retired member of the department, will fly to Tennessee July 25 and drive the truck across country to Palouse.
The department will move the ladders from their ‘87 and install radios and decals, likely after harvest, so the new truck will go into service in September or October.
Either way, it will be in the Palouse Days parade.
“We will make sure it is,” said Fire Chief Mike Bagott.
The pumper tanker is a longer style of fire truck developed in the ‘80s when departments realized more water was needed to bring to fires.
“Ten, 15 years ago, nobody had these kinds of trucks; now it’s becoming commonplace,” said Bagott.
The ‘87 Pierce will likely be sold. Palouse bought it in 2008 from the department in Albany, New York. It was shipped to Washington, partly due to it not having a fully enclosed cab, which makes it particularly noisy.
“It’s still a good truck,” Bagott said. “It might have 10 years left of use.”
With the new truck in service, the Palouse department will have almost doubled its water-hauling capacity in the past 20 years.
“When I started with the department (1995), we could take 4,500 gallons, now its 9,500 gallons,” Bagott said.
Overall, the chief indicated the department feels they found what they were looking for.
“We’re very hopeful this will be as good as the previous trucks,” said Bagott.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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