By Amy Batista, Special Writer
MANSFIELD —The new rescue truck arrived last Thursday at the station.
"It’s a big truck," President Douglas Borgstrom said. "They had put a lot of thought into it. The planning process was done very well to where everything we are taking off the old rescue already has a home on here."
It is a Pierce Quantum heavy duty rescue truck with 500 gallons of water and a 500 gallons per minute pump and seats six firefighters, he said.
The Township Committee authorized the $750,000 purchase of the firetruck for the Franklin Fire Company, using $712,500 in bonds or notes last September.
It has a walk-in man module and lots and lots of storage, he said.
The truck is replacing the old rescue truck, which will be turned into a fire police unit.
"The old fire police unit will be sold," he said.
"When we built this one (old rescue truck) in 1996, we were still in the old firehouse so it had to be built to fit in that building," he said. "The volunteer fire company bought this in 1996. This is the first rescue the township’s paid for."
"It’s gotten to a point where we just can’t do it (pay for everything) as a department," he added. "So they (the township) bought the two engines, and they bought this. The fire company owns the tender and the brush truck."
Equipment will be moved from the old truck over the course of the next month into the new truck, and new equipment will be purchased as well.
The truck is expected to be in service in about a month.
Mr. Borgstrom said the department will have to get drivers qualified on this truck, which will take several weeks.
The department does approximately 25 extrications a year, he said.
It covers Interstate 295, Route 206, Route 130, Route 68 and provides mutual aid to the Turnpike.
"I’m sure that we will probably get called more now because it has water on it now, too," he said. "That was our biggest problem with this. If we had a motor vehicle accident on 295, we would take the engine first because that had water on it, and then hope we would get enough guys to get this out (the rescue truck), but now we got the rescue tools and the water on one truck."
He said he hoped to invite local fire departments to come see the truck and get familiar with it.
Mr. Borgstrom also encouraged residents to "support your volunteers."
"We just sent out fund drive out," he said. "We are all volunteers."
He said its annual budget is $62,000.
There are 62 members in the department, 24 of whom are active. Duty crews work four nights a week from 6 to 10.
