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Rescue truck joining department

By Staff | Sep 4, 2002

After 11 years of building its fleet, the Tonganoxie Township Fire Department is nearly complete, said Tom Pulkrabek, fire chief.

“Since 1990 the township has been in the process of replacing and purchasing trucks,” he said.

This week the department will receive its latest addition a custom-built rescue truck.

“This truck is the culmination of this program,” Pulkrabek said.

The new truck will be taken to all types of rescue situations, he said. Because it has the ability to carry six people, it also will transport firefighters to fires.

“It literally will go on every fire run,” Pulkrabek said.

And, for auto accidents, the truck will carry the jaws of life and other similar equipment.

The truck, a GMC topkick, has a body built by Amtech Emergency Products.

The truck comes with two radio systems, and a compressed-air foam system, which is used primarily to extinguish fires at auto accidents.

“This will allow us to use 100 gallons of water, along with the foam solution to produce the equivalent of 2,000 gallons of foam,” Pulkrabek said.

“It puts out fire much better than water.”

The department also in March received a new 2,500-gallon tanker truck that also has a foam system.

The new trucks should help the department of 18 volunteer firefighters who work under an increasingly heavy workload, Pulkrabek said, noting a 50 percent increase in calls to date from last year.