By Beth Wilson
Corpus Christi Caller-Times (Texas)
Copyright 2006 Caller-Times Publishing Company
All Rights Reserved 

A new $200,000 fire truck will help Gregory volunteer firefighters fight fire with foam.

The pumper truck arrived Monday night from a South Dakota manufacturer. It features two foam tanks and allows the same truck to respond to house and car fires, which require different types of foam extinguishers, Chief Mark Hallowell Sr. said.

Hallowell said the department received a grant from the Department of Homeland Security for the truck, which will be the department's first new truck.

"The equipment we have is antiquated and outdated," he said. "Our newest truck is 20 years old."

The previous pumper truck was a 1988 model that sprayed only water. Foam is a better extinguisher because it seals out air better, Hallowell said.

The department's 15 firefighters have spent a considerable amount of time repairing the old pumper and their other two trucks - a 1960s-model pumper and a non-working brush truck.

"We can use our Tuesday nights to train instead of fixing trucks," Hallowell said.

The city put in $20,000 for the truck, a purchase that wouldn't have been possible without grant help, he said.

"It's nice to pull out of the station and know everything is going to work right," Hallowell said. "We've been able to put the fires out but a lot of the time we're out at the scene and we have to improvise to get things going."

The department has another new brush and tanker truck coming in October. That $80,000 truck was funded with a grant from the Texas Forest Service and a 10 percent match from the city, Hallowell said.