jody summit
Embarrassing – Most residents of the North Country are used to doing things themselves, and that attitude and experience proved essential for the Embarrass Fire Department, who recently built their own fire truck as a do-it-yourself project . The new rig was on display last weekend at the community's winter festival, which was held despite the poor winter weather this year.
The truck, now called Rescue 4, is known as a medium-duty wet rescue vehicle, but it's designed for versatility. Equipped with an 8,000-gallon tank, it can be used to respond to vehicle fires and other small fires, and will also be equipped with medical rescue equipment. The truck is designed to allow one responder to take the truck to the scene of an incident and respond effectively with both medical equipment and firefighting capabilities.
Fire Chief Tom Martin said the department spent about $55,000 on the project, including purchasing a surplus truck chassis for $6,000 and custom-fabricating a truck body to build a water tank and equipment storage. He said he invested US dollars. Buying this vehicle new costs approximately $350,000.
Martin said department member Eric Garman is leading the restoration effort. Justin Koshak, a member of the Pike-Sandy-Bullitt Fire Department, custom designed and welded the new body, and the fire department was given access to heated garage space by Charlie Winger, where they repainted and built the new truck. Assembled.
The track has some kind of sentimental value for Martin. The truck was originally stationed at Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps base camp in Southern California. Martin's father was stationed there during this time in the early 1950s and was involved in the development of this same type of truck. Martin's father passed away two years ago, and the department received the truck a year ago from another Minnesota fire department.
The department has had a busy year with other projects, including redoing all fire signs in the service area and constructing a helipad landing strip with concrete pads and lighting on several acres of land adjacent to the fire station. The Rantala family made a donation to the ministry. This creates a safer zone for medical evacuations without the worry of vehicles or people in the area, as was the case with previous zones including the old Four Corners grounds and the Timber Hall racetrack area. I was born. The new helipad zone is designed to allow one person to secure the site.