By FireRescue1 Staff
HANOVER, Mass. — A fire department’s ambulance is back in service thanks to a group of vocational students.
Boston25News.com reported that the Hanover Fire Department ambulance was taken out of service Sunday because the back bumper was rotted.
The department, which had another ambulance out for repair, was left with only one ambulance to service the town.
“We knew we needed to get this ambulance turned around quickly, get it repaired, so we could get it back in service,” Hanover Fire Chief Jeffrey Blanchard said.
To repair the rig quickly, Chief Blanchard called South Shore Technical High School for help. Students in the metal fabrication and welding program helped crews fix the ambulance.
“We had to cut off the back bumper,” student Peter Shaughnessy said. “It was rotted. We welded it, painted it and put it back on.”
https://www.facebook.com/HanoverMAFire/posts/2679260568801486
Student Mike Hagan said they finished the job in two days — for free.
“If they took that somewhere else, it would have been a couple hundred bucks just to make them a new bumper and probably a couple of days,” Hagan said.
The department said the students did a “top-notch” job, according to the report. Bob Mello, the students’ instructor, said he’s glad the department entrusted his students with the job.
“That was an awesome job that those kids got to do because it was an application of what they learned in the classroom and now transferred out to a real-life situation,” Mello said.
Chief Blanchard said students from other trades at the school have helped with different projects around the firehouse.