Fire district buys brush truck

Southwest Florida hasn’t seen a busy brush fire season, but fire officials in south Fort Myers aren’t taking any chances.

The South Trail Fire Protection & Rescue District recently put a new 2008 Dodge Ram brush truck into operation in anticipation of more fires.

“We had a real bad brush fire last season and the whole county at times didn’t have any trucks available,” said Fire Chief William Lombardo, noting that the south trail area had only one brush truck. “We had expected a very bad brush season and we are glad we didn’t get it.”

The district purchased the $99,000 truck after budgeting in advance of the new fiscal year that started in October 2007.

Safety standards for the truck were taken into consideration during purchase and this one seems to fit the bill.

“The new apparatus in this one has a remote control operated nozzle that is mounted to the front of the vehicle,” he said about the standards that are set by the National Fire Protection Association.

The front-mounted nozzle allows firefighters to stay safe in the truck while fighting fires but still be able to get the job done.

“This is a beautiful feature .. it’s much safer but it still has a walk thru on the top where the firefighter can ride out on top if needed,” Lombardo said.

Firefighters will also be able to fight fires longer because the new truck carries 500 gallons of water — twice the water capacity of the older truck.

It also has a built-in foam tank that makes brush fires easier to tackle.

“Foam makes water wetter and allows it to soak down into the wood and prevents reignition,” Lombardo said. “Foam injectors have come a long way and these are just new generation tanks that make it easier for us.”

The life of a brush truck is usually 10 years, but officials rebuild the trucks to make them last longer as they fight in harsh wooden terrain or hop up on street medians.

“Sometimes they get beat up pretty bad,” he said about the truck that features traffic advisory lights on top to help move traffic and safety stripes.

The brush truck was formally dedicated at a ceremony on May 2 — a return to fire station tradition.

“In the eight years that I’ve been at South Trail, this will be the first dedication service for new apparatus that I’ve seen,” said Christie Knudsen, the district spokesperson in an e-mail.

The truck will be housed at the main headquarters station 63, 5531 Halifax Ave. It will participate in multi-agency response situations when necessary.