The Stuart Fire Department took delivery of a brand new fire truck this past Friday. Assistant fire chief Jim Henderson described some of the cutting edge features equipped on the big, red machine, “It’s a 2015 Freightliner, holds 2300 gallons of water, has a jockey pump for transferring water, has a 2500 gallon port-a-tank for larger fire scenes and shuttling water. Built by Towne Inc, out of Breda, Iowa.”
Henderson says the main use of the truck will be as more of a role player in fighting fires, “What this will do is tend the trucks that are already out in the field. And then all of the other trucks will come back to refill water, and change out crews, that sort of stuff.”
The truck cost $171,000 and while that may sound like a lot, Henderson says he sees Stuart utilizing it for at least the next twenty years.