RO Fire Department looking to replace 34 year old truck

The Red Oak City Council is looking to replace an outdated fire truck with a newer model.
At a special meeting of the Red Oak City Council May 30, the council met with Red Oak fire Chief John Bruce, who said plans to replace the department’s 1989 fire engine 130, had been developed under Red Oak’s prior fire chief. Bruce said there were a number of issues due to the truck’s age.
“It failed its pump test in November 2019, August 2020, October 2021, and November 2022. A pump test measures the input and output of the truck’s gallons per minute. It means the pump can’t keep up with the National Fire Protection Association standards of so many gallons per minute. The failure of the pump is reducing the water flow,” explained Bruce.
The significance of having effective fire engines, equipment, and personnel also impacted insurance rates.  Bruce said The ISO (Insurance Services Office) Fire Score is a rating that determines how well the fire department can protect your community and home.
“Right now, we are currently at a four, which is really good for a rural setting. There’s 105 points of an ISO rating, and 39 alone are apparatus and personnel response; it plays a huge part. It basically answers the question of how much response time is required for the first truck, second truck, a ladder truck, if needed, personnel, and how many gallons per minute of water can be used on the fire right away,” advised Bruce. “Also, it doesn’t just apply to Red Oak residents, it applies to our rural residents. We have insurance companies that will contact us and ask for the same rates as well. That’s how the customers get that price range determined for them. There is a business aspect to us having good stuff.”
While the truck was currently under reserve status, NFPA standards indicated reserve fire trucks should be no more than 25 years old, due to wear and tear and safety standards, and the truck was nine years beyond that.
“We’ve put on bandage after bandage to the point where it’s no longer viable to use it. It has none of the new safety standards, and they’re even having problems finding parts for these trucks now. Also, everything is getting more expensive,” commented Bruce.
Among the issues needing to be addressed to bring the truck up to NFPA standards would be non-slip walking surfaces and handrails, the addition of a load manager system, an updated auxiliary braking system, new engine belts, fuel lines and filters, and new brake lines.
Another big issue was timing. Bruce said to get a new fire truck ordered and delivered, even if they moved forward now, it would be in the realm of 41 to 44 and a half months until delivery if the truck was ordered immediately.
“This has turned into a another problem, as we’ve dragged our feet on buying a replacement and now it’s getting farther and farther out before we can get a new one delivered,” Bruce said.
Councilperson Brian Bills asked how trucks were priced with such a delay noted between delivery. Bruce said once an agreement was signed, the price was locked in. Until that was done, approximately every 90 days, there could be a hike in the cost of materials. Also, if an agreement was signed, the truck would not need to be purchased right away.
The department’s current first line apparatus, according to the NFPA standards, should be no more than 15 years old. Fire engine 131 on the first line is 14 years old, which means that it is pushing the point where it should be moved to the second line.
Bruce said they had done everything available to extend the life of Engine 130 as far as possible.  
“Like usual, as we’ve moved through these projects, if you didn’t have the funding available, we tried to find ways around it. Now we’ve pushed it to the point where Engine 130 is not even supposed to be getting used, and I don’t want to see something happen,” Bruce said. “And since we’re sitting on a failed pump test, I’m not sure we can use that truck in an ISO rating right now, and I definitely don’t want to do anything to our citizens that would raise their insurance rates.”
While NFPA recommendations were to limit the trucks to 25 years of service, Bruce said they worked hard to get around 30 years of service.
“We are very religious on our maintenance here. It’s done every year to keep those trucks alive and going. It’s just that this one is way past the standard, and our mainline engine is encroaching on that 25 year standard. We’re trying to get ahead of it.”
After reviewing budgets with former city administrator Al Vacanti, Bruce said he felt the department was at a point where it was time to present the need, and council action would be greatly appreciated.
The new truck would be a Pierce Impel PUC pumper. Bruce said they selected Pierce because it holds the primary fleet at the department.
“It gives us uniformity for our parts and maintenance. We can order any part off that truck because they go off build numbers. We also have access to their engineers free of charge. When we had issues with our aerial truck, they flew two engineers out. The engineers reprogrammed the truck and it was not a penny out of our pocket for the work. That’s them standing behind their product. They also have a shop in Des Moines for other mechanical work, so they can come to us, or we can come to them,” explained Bruce.
While other companies built trucks, they had strict standards in regards to the builds for the trucks, and Pierce’s strong maintenance offerings were a big factor in selecting trucks from Pierce.
Bruce said it was uncertain if any grants would be available to assist in the truck’s purchase, and most unfortunately did not go very far towards the cost of purchasing a vehicle as expensive as a new fire truck.
Since the item on the agenda had no action, the council agreed to discuss support of the purchase of the new engine at a future council meeting.