Chelsea Fire Dept Wins
Grant for New Tanker

The Chelsea Volunteer Fire Department learned last week that it has been awarded a 2005 Assistance to Firefighters Grant to purchase a new tanker truck for the department. The grant, which totals $205,238, comes just in time, as the department has been employing short-term fixes to repair the persistently leaking tank on its current truck for quite some time. The grant will also fund a driver’s education course for the department.

The grant requires a one-year period of performance, so the truck will be purchased and in use within one year. The local required match totals $10,802. The total approved project costs are $216,040. The grant is awarded on behalf of the Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness, in collaboration with the U.S. Fire Administration at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Since the department applied for the grant several months ago, its current tanker, which is the combination of an old milk tanker mounted on a 1981 beer truck body, had sprung another leak just recently.

A truck committee will seek bids for the new tanker. The new truck will be a 2,500 gallon poly wet side tank with a 1,000 gallon per minute PTO pump, two powered side dumps and one manual rear dump. It will also be equipped with an automatic transmission, which will be a great improvement over the 12-speed manual transmission on the old truck, which also lacked an exhaust brake. The driver’s education training will improve the firefighters’ skills for specifically operating emergency vehicles.

The new truck will bring all of Chelsea’s fire trucks up to date with the 1991 NFPA 1901 compliance standards, except its forestry truck. A tanker truck is essential in rural areas where 95% of the service territory does not have a hydrant system. When a larger water supply is readily available at the scene of a fire, fewer firefighters are devoted to water supply and can assist in gaining control of the scene more efficiently.

By Emily Marshia