The Amarillo Fire Department is set to enhance its fleet with the purchase of six new fire engines and two ladder trucks, marking a significant upgrade to the department's capabilities. The investment, which totals over $13 million, is designed to ensure that the city's first responders have the best equipment to handle the approximately 20,000 emergency calls the department responds to each year.
The department's 13 fire stations are spread across Amarillo, and Deputy Fire Chief David Kouba stresses the importance of maintaining fire trucks in peak condition to ensure safety and efficiency.
"It has to be 100 percent," said Kouba. "It can't be, well, it's 80 percent today. Everything on that thing has to run 100 percent to be able to go out there on response, so keeping up with that is a high demand."
The fire engines are not only crucial for combating fires but also support paramedics and other first responders in the field. "There's multiple bags of medical equipment plus cardiac monitors and a lot of things that are advanced life support folks and paramedics can use to be able to serve our community with that care," Kouba explained.
Currently, more than half of the fire engines in the department’s fleet are over 10 years old, with repairs becoming increasingly frequent as the trucks age. Kouba pointed out that fire trucks typically begin to accumulate repairs after reaching five years of service, which has prompted the department to implement a long-term replacement strategy.
“Start replacing those and then put everything moving forward on a 10-year replacement cycle,” Kouba said. “What we’ll anticipate is we’re gonna start reducing overall cost of ownership, repair costs, and start getting that fleet out before it starts getting not as cost-effective to keep them running at that many years in service.”
This proactive approach is aimed at ensuring the fire department's fleet remains reliable and cost-effective over the long term.
To finance the upgrade, the City of Amarillo will work with a brokerage firm to secure the best possible loan terms. Laura Storrs, the city’s Chief Financial Officer, explained the goal of minimizing the impact on taxpayers while securing competitive interest rates.
"The plan was to save as many taxpayer dollars as we can and to go out, take a loan, and do competitive bids to get the lowest interest rate possible," Storrs said.
The first set of new fire trucks, which will be built to the department's specific needs, is expected to be delivered in about 18 months. This significant investment in equipment will help ensure the Amarillo Fire Department can continue to respond quickly and effectively to emergencies, ultimately benefiting the entire community.
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