Hey ScubaJay.....it's interesting to hear about the local fire depts and how they work together.
I don't know....it just seems to me that it is more a case of the firefighter doing the job than the fire truck. Getting the job done is probably more to do with people and training and less than with a brand new fire truck.
If I were a selectman I would go search around for a good used fire truck, about 75-90% less in price than brand new, and go buy a new gallon of red Rustoleum paint.....etc.
Surely, there must be many small town and out-in-the-country fire depts, from all over, that go
this route. Big cities with full time, big budget depts buy new, and the small towns buy their used equipment and do repairs. A fire truck probably has a very long life what with fire dept maintenance. Hydraulics, pumps, and engines are designed to be renewed, rebuilt or replaced. Frames get welded to a fix and that old 'ruck' becomes a 'new truck', good-to-go, to the next fire.
Firefighters and not fire trucks are the dominant factor in fighting a fire. I imagine you can take a brand new truck and quickly break it through operator misuse. Is that what happened with Meredith's new truck?
For a small community to be buying $750,000 fire trucks: It's all about what it can afford and not what it really needs. Necessity is still the mother of invention. And, as everyone has heard: Why buy new, when you can buy a good used truck?
www.bradfordfireapparatus.com