44.0°,
Mostly Cloudy Island Park welcomes a shiny new truck
The sun shone brightly and there were smiles all around as the Island Park Fire Department, the Village of Island Park, the Barnum Island Fire District and other fire departments from near and far joined dignitaries at the Island Park firehouse on March 22 for the “wet-down” to welcome a new fire truck to the community, a major step forward for a department that was ravaged by Hurricane Sandy.
The firehouse and all its equipment were destroyed in the storm. When help was needed most, the chief of the Roswell, Ga., Fire Department, Ricky Spencer, arrived with a truck that the Roswell department donated to Island Park. Spencer and his wife, Joanna, made another trip north last weekend to take part in the ceremony. “This was the proudest moment of my life, to do this for you,” he told the crowd.
The Fire Department in Falls Church, Va., donated an ambulance to Island Park as well. And the village is paying it forward, sending that ambulance to the South Floral Park Fire Department and the Roswell fire truck to Bangor, N.Y., near the Canadian border.
The new rescue pumper truck, which took about a year to build and cost $650,000, was designed by members of the Island Park department and Hendrickson Fire Rescue Equipment of Islandia, and constructed by Spartan ERV at its plant in South Dakota. It features several modifications that will help keep it in service should there be another storm like Sandy.
A spokesman for Hendrickson, Craig Probst, said the truck is equipped with airbags and air curtains for the safety of the firemen, and the interior is larger than most trucks, offering added mobility. It has a 500-horsepower engine, and holds about 700 gallons of water.
Additional equipment includes a 10,000-pound portable winch that is capable of pulling vehicles out of floods or ditches, and an advanced “jaws of life” apparatus. Spartan came up with an innovative way to move the exhaust up 12 feet, if needed, so it will vent above the truck, and Probst explained that Spartan worked with Island Park to redesign the electronics so they would be higher on the truck, both innovations made with flooding in mind. The truck is topped with a light tower, for nighttime operations.
