Pritchard fire department gets new pumper truck

This truck will soon be part of the Pritchard Volunteer Fire Department.

PRITCHARD — The Pritchard Volunteer Fire Department will get a new pumper truck after the TNRD approved its purchase for an all-in price of $310,500.

The truck isn’t quite brand new, but it’s pretty close (a 2015 Freightliner-Rosenbauer pumper), and it’s considered to be excellent value for the price. The funds will come from capital reserves.

The current pumper is 25 years old and is in need of replacement in order for the department to maintain its Fire Underwriters (FUS) certification.

Shortly before the Christmas season, the department found a truck that was available from the town of Calmar in Alberta. It became surplus to the fire department there due to upcoming regionalization of fire services.

The total price includes $251,000 for the truck as well as taxes, transport, inspection fees and some minor retrofitting. As a comparison, the Blue River Volunteer Fire Department recently purchased a very similar pumper truck for $375,000.

Congratulations and thanks to the Pritchard fire protection committee for all its work on this. The Pritchard fire department serves Pritchard in Area P and Area L, and Director Ken Gillis of Area L and I were pleased to move and second the necessary board resolutions for the purchase.

The board has also adopted changes to the duties of fire protection committees, moving to a local government driven management model that reduces legal risk to TNRD volunteer fire protection committees.

In addition to Pritchard, the TNRD operates the Vavenby and Black Pool fire departments. Other fire departments in the regional district are operated by societies.

The changes approved by the board move from management and operations by the TNRD fire protection committees to an advisory role. The changes have been under discussion with the committees for the past year.