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TOP STORY & VIDEO OF THE DAY Brought to you FREE by WICU: New pump engine for Posey Township Volunteer Fire Department, firefighters grateful for support
Posey Township Volunteer Fire Department has a new piece of equipment, thanks to the fire district status.
“We are very appreciative of our taxpayers, and their support,” said Posey Fire Chief Cody Barnard. “Because without them doing their part, paying their taxes, there is absolutely no way that truck would be sitting out there in the bay right now. We are really excited to have this truck, and it’s going to be a valuable resource in the years to come.”
A brand-new 2020 Spartan pumper engine rolled into the truck bay at Staunton’s fire department on Sept. 16. The department worked together to design the truck from the ground up to meet their specifications, and Alexis Fire Equipment Company, Alexis, Illinois, built it for them, except the frame of the truck.
“It’s the first new fire truck that this department has been able to buy in nearly 20 years,” said Barnard, citing the last new truck was not created for the department. “This one was specked out with input from all of our department, and a committee of four firefighters organized the design.”
Each firefighter on the committee had different backgrounds, experiences, and knowledge that enabled the design to cover current needs and envision what potential needs could arise in the future.
“It’s got everything on it that we might need, in places where we want it,” said Barnard, who encouraged firefighters’ feedback. “It was a six-month process, with the actual construction at Alexis taking somewhere around 12-13-weeks once they got started. The intent is this firetruck is probably going to be here 20 years. We don’t want it just for today or tomorrow. We want it to get us through to the future. As the fire service is always actively changing, who knows what it will be like in 20 years.”
Barnard said the new truck would be there for the future generation of firefighters.
The 18-member department annually responds to 300 calls for service, including fire, car accidents, gas leaks, trees down, with 85 percent of the calls for medical assistance. The department covers 36-square miles (approximately 4,000 residents) of their territory in Clay County, provides back-up service, along with Jackson Township Volunteer Fire Department, on Interstate-70, and has a county-wide mutual aid agreement with other departments as well as one with fire departments in Vigo.
“We go where ever we are needed, where ever we are requested to go, we go,” said Barnard, who said the department averages 33 runs a month. “We respond to just about everything.”
With all that emergency travel in firetrucks, high visibility is vital to the safety of responding firefighters and motorists. That is why the new firetruck came equipped with a Roto-Ray.
“It’s to increase the optical warning of the front of the firetruck,” said committee member and firefighter Lt. Brady Reece. “It’s different, better at catching a motorist’s attention while driving during the day and at night.”
Roto-Rays are used by many departments on the east and west coasts for 65 years as a safety feature. Three sealed LED lights – one clear/white and two red – rotate at 200 RPM on the horizontal plane that commands motorists’ attention. It sort of looks like a spinning pinwheel with high-beams.
Reece said it was a priority to increase the visibility and safety features on the new truck.
“Every time we take the trucks out, it seems there is always at least one person who won’t pull over or get out of the way,” said Reece. “Anytime the lights are on, and the parking brake is released, the Roto-Ray comes on.”
VIDEO by Times Reporter Ivy Jacobs
