The City of Gallatin has received its first rendering of a new fire engine in production that was ordered in December of 2021 for $635,000. The water-pumping engine will replace the primary fire apparatus currently being used at either Fire Station 3 (860 Red River Road) or Fire Station 4 (315 Big Station Camp Boulevard). The Gallatin Fire Department will conduct an evaluation of the operating costs for each of these sites to determine which station this new fire engine will be assigned to.
The fire engine to be replaced will continue to be used for an additional five to seven years as a reserve apparatus when a front-line fire engine is down for repairs or maintenance. Generally, a fire engine has a service life of 15 years in front-line service and approximately five to seven additional years as a reserve.
“The fire engine that’s depicted in the drawing will pump water to fire attack hose lines and to the aerial apparatus when needed,” said Fire Chief Jeff Beaman. “It also carries a variety of other firefighting and public safety related equipment, especially to handle emergency medical incidents.”
Across the nation, municipal fire departments are rethinking the traditional service delivery where full-size fire engines are deployed to both fire and medical emergencies. Chief Beaman says the Gallatin Fire Department has been adopting tiered response plans to incidents that are based on risk and the information reported.
The fire department is developing plans to utilize an ‘Alternative Response Vehicle’ that will be sent to many of our medical incidents instead of a fire truck. “Utilizing our existing on-duty personnel and an SUV type response vehicle, we will first deploy this response model from Fire Station 1 since this is our busiest fire station,” said Chief Beaman. “We’ll then develop best practices from this experience and expand the program to other fire stations.” The initial and on-going operating costs for the “Alternative Response Vehicle” model are minimal compared with the traditional use of a fire engine dispatched to medical incidents.
For more information on Gallatin Fire Department initiatives, contact Fire Chief Jeff Beaman at 615-452-2771 or email [email protected].
