WILTON — A new ladder truck for Wilton Fire and Rescue arrived on Saturday.
For more than two years, the Firetruck Committee, Town Manager Rhonda Irish and members of the department have addressed the need for ladder coverage of the town’s buildings, fire Chief Sonny Dunham said Monday.
The 76-foot ladder HME truck is “big enough for all buildings in Wilton and there is mutual aid on both sides of town,” Dunham said of coverage for the town.
An opportunity to purchase a demonstration model, only used for shows to promote HME quint trucks, was approved by the Board of Selectpersons in December. Voters had approved spending $500,000 for a truck in November.
The truck chassis is a 2012 but the ladder was installed in 2013, he said.
Ladder 7, as it is now called, will replace the department’s Engine 7, which is for sale.
The new truck is 38 feet long, which is 4 feet longer than Engine 7, but it can easily get around, Dunham said. It has a 500-horsepower engine, seats six and carries 400 gallons of water. A tanker truck carrying 2,200 gallons of water will follow it to fires, he said.
Some items which were requested by the department were added over the past couple months. The truck was available for pickup from Ossipee, N.H., and driven to Wilton on Saturday, he said.
Department drivers will practice driving it, but the truck will not be in service until later this month. Trainers from the manufacturer, HME, and Lake Region Fire Apparatus, where the truck was purchased, are expected to give department members a full day of training on March 28, Dunham said.
Dunham expressed his appreciation for the support of Irish, the committee and the community “who made it right to get this,” he said.
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