A new fire truck is coming to the city.
On Monday, council members approved the rescue pumper from Fort Garry Fire Trucks.
The price tag is $995,635, excluding GST.
This includes the design, build, and delivery of a pumper that’s equipped with a five-person full-tilt custom cab and 2,000 GPM (gallons per minute) pump.
The pumper will replace the 1999 Smeal rescue pumper currently used as a frontline engine at the No. 2 fire station.
Campbell River fire chief Thomas Doherty says there’ll be a bit of a wait for the new addition.
“Typically the construction takes anywhere from eight to 12 months. It depends on the availability of the number of materials and what-not,” he said. “There are still a number of processes that have to happen with the pre-construction meetings with the successful bidder all the way through to delivery.”
The city notes that the Fire Underwriter Survey, the agency which sets the insurance grading in B.C. communities, does not recognize a pumper’s water pump capacity beyond 20 years.
Doherty noted that the current 20-year-old pumper has reached its end-of-life service.
The 1999 Smeal will move into a reserve role for the next five years once this replacement engine arrives.
The old pumper will be used when the new apparatus is out of service for maintenance, used for training and used as an additional resource for multiple calls or a larger event.
Doherty said the truck will be a welcome addition to the south end of the city.
“This truck will be stationed at the No. 2 station in the south, which is where we’re seeing significant growth here in the city and much higher demand for call volume,” he said.
The bid from Fort Garry Fire Trucks is slightly higher than the $986,000 approved capital project budget for the replacement, which is funded by the Capital Lending Reserve.
The nearly $10,000 overage will be offset by the approved Fire Small Equipment Replacement budget.
