First fire engine heading to Ukraine coming from Chillicothe

"THIS ENGINE HAS BEEN HERE SINCE THE VERY BEGINNING IN 1996. IT STARTED OUT AT STATION ONE AND NOW IT'S KIND OF A RESERVE PIECE OF EQUIPMENT FOR US."
Published: Oct. 5, 2022 at 1:14 PM CDT

PEORIA (25 News Now) - Central Illinois is being recognized for a major contribution to Ukraine.

As 25News’ Morning Reporter Brett Brooks shows us, a classic fire truck is about to make the trip overseas, “this fire truck is the very first fire engine going to Ukraine from America and it was made in 1996 and holds 1,000 gallons of water.”

“This engine has been here since the very beginning in 1996. It started out at station one and now it’s kind of a reserve piece of equipment for us.” Marvin Roderick the Fire Chief for the Chillicothe Community Fire Protection District explains.

In an effort to support the people of Ukraine in their conflict with Russia. This 1996 Ferra is now facing a new mission.

Roderick says his team “loaded it [fire engine] up with a bunch of things we’re not going to use but hopefully they’ll be able to use. We have air packs, fire hose fittings, fire hoses, and things like that.”

Filled to the brim with donations from the Chillicothe Firefighters and signed with messages of support.

Chillicothe Fire Chief Roderick says it’s their way of showing the generosity stemming from Central Illinois.

Roderick says, “we want to help them in any way we can with their citizens. I saw they were sending ambulances and that was a really good idea and to be asked to be the first fire engine was really important to us as you can see from all the messages on the fire apparatus that our people are very much in support of them getting a bunch of positive messages.”

With this being the very first fire truck being sent over to Ukraine, small in stature this engine’s power is big in results.

“One of the things that really cool about this is it has a lot of water and it’s really short so I was really surprised to find out it has 1,000 gallons of water in it because it’s very compact. A lot of our engines are larger than this and may have less water so the fact that it’s small and has 1,000 gallons of water that are kind of unique about this.” Explains Roderick.

Brett Brooks says, “before this engine is shipped off to Ukraine it’s going to be a part of the IVC (Illinois Valley Central) homecoming parade. On Monday, the community is invited to the official send-off where they can sign the engine before it is shipped on Tuesday to Ukraine.”