By John Badman
The Telegraph
GODFREY, Ill. — After over a decade without one, the Godfrey Fire Department received a brand new E-One fire truck on April 28.
At a cost of $1.4 million, the new truck is a 78-foot straight stick truck, meaning it has no bucket or platform.
Built at the E-One plant in Ocala, Florida, the department will operate the truck as a “quint,” meaning it has five functions. To be a quint, a truck must have a pump, a booster tank, fire hoses, an aerial device, and ground ladders.
The truck’s 2,000 GPM pump will help the truck in its new role as it replaces an older pumper truck. Fire Chief Eric Cranmer and a trustee of the Godfrey Fire Board, drove the truck back from Florida and arrived Monday.
Cranmer said the village had an aerial tower, but it broke down and was eventually sold in 2012 after 12 years of service.
Godfrey lucked out in several ways with the purchase, according to Cranmer.
“This truck was already built,” Cranmer said.
It matched the department’s specs, and the truck, built new, was going to be hundreds of thousands of dollars cheaper because it was already built and escaped the price increase coming in the next year. The truck only needed minor alterations, including a paint job with a shade of red to match the department’s other trucks.
Originally, the truck was a darker red. And it has a white top cab. The company added diamond plate in heavy traffic areas, and it reduced the complications of a whole truck re-paint.
The 2024 model was received in only 2.5 years, since it was already built as opposed to a truck ordered from scratch that would have taken four years and been much more expensive. It was never used as a demo, so the timing of the order was perfect.
“It has a single rear axle, so it can go anywhere in the village, just like a pumper truck,” Cranmer said.
Cranmer said people ask why Godfrey, which has no high-rise buildings, needs a ladder truck. It’s used for far more than high-rise operations, and Godfrey has many two-story structures and commercial buildings where a major fire calls for a ladder.
That need was obvious in January 2022 when a fire broke out at the Hatch & Kirk engine repair facility at 4758 Humbert Road in Godfrey. The blazing, fully-involved fire needed a ladder truck to extinguish it. Godfrey called Alton, and they sent their then-ailing ladder truck, which broke down on the way to Godfrey. That required Godfrey to call for a ladder from Wood River, Brighton and Black Jack, Missouri.
Alton eventually arrived with a truck, but the fire involved solvents and potentially hazardous smoke. Ladder trucks are also used on house fires and rescues, so the village has the need. It may also improve the village’s fire rating, which could lower insurance rates for residents if reduced.
The new apparatus will not be in service for about six weeks while equipment and radios are installed.
Three shifts of firefighters will receive training from both Banner Fire Equipment in Roxana, the dealer who sold the truck, and trainers from E-One in Florida.
The new truck will eventually respond to calls as truck 1430.
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